Suswaralaya College of Music to begin 26th year celebrations this week

Starting their 26th year with celebrations, Suswaralaya College of Music is hosting concerts, performances and other events this week, beginning with its annual music awards ceremony.

“This year, we are honouring veena vidwan Geetha Ramanand with the senior award Swaralayashrunga for her immense contribution to music,” says HS Sudhindra, principal and managing trustee of Suswaralya.

Geetha, a former executive at Akashvani, has directed numerous music programmes and mentored hundreds of students who are performers today. “Apart from presenting lecture demonstrations, Geetha has also been a proponent of the veena, an instrument that was slowly being edged out after the introduction of the violin at concerts,” says Sudhindra, who is a renowned mridangist is his own right.

Suswaralaya College of Music will bestow the Swaralayarathna award on mridangist and vocal artiste Kanchana A Ishwara Bhat. “Ishwara Bhat is not just a vocalist, but performs on the mridanga as well. He has been teaching and propagating both forms to as many as 300 students in the Udupi and Dakshin Kannada parts of the state,”  says Sudhindra.

Senior mridanga artistes M Vasudev Rao, Srimushnam V Raja Rao and Rajyothsava awardee SN Omkar will be conferring the titles on the recipients on October 24. This will be followed by a performance presented by the awardees later in the evening.

Musician Kanchana A Ishwara Bhat
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Special Arrangement

According to Sudhindra, the three-day event comprises lec-dems on the ‘Vijaya Yatra of Tyagaraja Swami’ by Srikrishnan V and the ‘Relevance of Haridasa Compositions’ by Justice V Srishananda, as well a Laya Vinyasa on the 5^th Mela Tala Maanavathi, a Tala Vadhya and a Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi followed by Kolluru Vandana’s evening vocal concert on October 25.

“This year, we have representations from Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, that include a mother-and-son morsing duet by Bhagyalakshmi M Krishna and KM Likhith, and a vocal concert by D Raghava Chary of the Hyderabad Brothers on October 26,” says Sudhindra.

Musical outreach

The Suswaralaya College of Music not only functions as an institute to learn music, but also gives students a foundation in the domain of their choice. “We help interested students reach out to institutions such as the Centre for Cultural Resource and Training (CCRT) to further their learning, keep them informed on State government scholarships, and help them get their grading at All India Radio,” says Sudhindra.

Suswaralaya brought out the Directory of Musicians and Danseuses (Karnataka) about 20 years ago with more than 3,000 listings, and apart from regular updates, it has also devised a medical assistance scheme for deserving musicians in distress. Over the past 25 years, the institute has released over 20 CDs and as many books related to Carnatic music.

“From the time I was being trained in percussion as a teenager, both my gurus M Vasudev Rao and Srimushnam Raja Rao, have taught me to reach beyond music to include social service for music, musicians and society. “‘Use your hands and voice for percussion and music, and your heart for philanthropy to achieve a perfect balance,’ they always reminded me,” says Sudhindra, who has been performing for the last four decades.

Suswaralaya College of Music’s anniversary celebrations will be held from October 24 to 26 at the Indian Institute of World Culture. Open to all. Call 94480 59595 for details.