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The Music Academy had been under the shadow of disorder and uncertainty in
the recent past. Concerned music lovers all over the world can rest
assured that the situation has taken a turn for the better. On November 6th
2005, a new team of office bearers was elected by the Academy members.
This new team will be led by their president, Mr. N. Murali (Jt Managing
Director of the Hindu). Carnatica's Tejusvini Varadachari spoke to
Dr. V. V. Srivatsa, Joint Secretary, Music Academy about the elections and
the upcoming season.
On the elections…
The
elections were held under the orders of the High Court, under the supervision
of Shri. K. P. Sivasubramaniam, a retired judge of the High Court, along with
a member of the Department of Registration, a Deputy Inspector General Mr.
Mani. I think everybody agrees that the elections were free, fair and honest.
And the members of the Academy have given their mandate in an overwhelming
majority.
Priority Agenda
The
first agenda is to run the festival. The second of course, is to bring in much
more interaction, and transparency in the affairs of the Academy. These are
the priorities of the Academy. Then, we have to increase the value of the
endowments; the interest rates have gone down terribly, so the income from
endowments has gone down. This is hurting the conduct of the programmes under
the Endowments scheme. This is another priority.
Awards this year
“The
'Sangita Kalandhi' title will be awarded to senior violinist M.
Chandrasekharan. The 'Sangita Kala Acharya' will be awarded to musicians B. V.
Raman and Seethalakshmi Venkatesan of Bangalore. The two TTK awards will go to
N. Ravikiran and dance master Pandanallur Gopalakrishnan.
Morning Academy Sessions
The
two things that distinguish the Academy from a sabha – Morning Academic
Sessions and Teachers College. This year’s keynote subject will be
instruments. There will be three violin presentations on the styles of
playing. It is really encouraging that Lalgudi Jayaraman Sir himself will be
conducting a demonstration, Sangita Kalanidhi T. N. Krishnan will be
conducting another and representing the Parur school will be Sangita Kala
Acharya Parur M. S. Anantharaman. We have allocated two days to the veena;
four people representing four different banis will be playing. We have given
two days for Taalavadyas; and on one day, we will be presenting in a combined
manner the khanjari, moharsing (we are very clear about the way we pronounce
these!) and konnakol, which is a dying art. On another day, Shri. Umalyalpuram
Sivaraman will demonstrate the mode of playing for vocal music and for veena.
We are bringing in a new feature – ‘Instruments in sculpture’; Ms Roopa Gopal
will be doing the presentation.
One
can see that it is ‘music’ as usual at the Academy. Chief Minister J
Jayalalithaa will inaugurate the Music Academy''s music festival and its 79th
annual conference (Vidwath Sabha) in Chennai on December 17, 2005
The schedule of the Academy is now
available. Apart from the performances, a special concert of the Orchestra
of the Bavarian State Opera, conducted by Zubin Mehta, will be held at the
Music Academy on December 26. This is being organised by the Max Mueller
Bhavan and others to raise funds for tsunami rehabilitation works.
TEJUSVINI VARADACHARI
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