Music Fest begins with young talents at Sri Vani Kala Kendra

Much ahead of Sri Ramanavami, which falls on April 19 this year, an education centre in Basaveshwara Nagar, commenced its music festival today.
Sri Vani Kala Kendra functions under Sri Vani Education Centre that runs academic institutions in three different campuses in Rajaji Nagar and Basaveshvara Nagar. The Sangeetotsava is held in the school campus at Basaveshwara Nagar.

After the inauguration of the fest by Dr. Mahesh Joshi, Director, Doordarshan Kendra, Bangalore. K.R. Ramakrishna, Commissioner, Kannada & Culture, Govt. of Karnataka and Dr. B.N.V. Subrahmanya, founder, Jyoti Institutions, the young artistes took the stage.

Master Nishanth, who looked tiny on the dais is a bundle of huge talent. Accompanied by his violinist brother Master Satwik Tejaswi and young percussionists Raghu Bhagawat and Raghunandan B.S, the one hour concert by Nishanth was set in traditional pattern with a couple of kritis, a main item along with a tani avartanam and ended with a tukkada and slokam.

Aditi B.P is another very young talented singer. Her voice has a sharp tonal quality. She rolls out brighas and sangatis like a seasoned artiste. Set in a traditional concert pattern, she concluded with the popular kriti by Purandaradasa, 'Bhagyada Lakshmi baramma' adding rgamalika touch towards the end, which received huge applause.

Tanushree N performs Bharatanatyam with a vigour. Having had her Arangetram at the age of 9 and performed in many stages, dance comes to her naturally. People who sat back beyond 9 p.m. would be thankful to Mattur Lakshmi Keshava, who kept insisting that the audience stay back and watch her dance. Keshava is the man behind spotting these talents.

He says, "I go to almost all the concerts by young people wherever they perform in Bangalore. Sometimes friends refer young artistes to us. But we watch them perform before bringing them here."

"Until last year, the young artistes were featured before the main concerts during the weekends. From this year, we have decided to earmark a week for them for there are many budding talents and weekends are not just enough," says Sharadaprasad, secretary of the Sri Vani Education Centre. "Also, the summer vacation that has already begun in our schools makes it easy for the children to get ready to perform," he adds.

The young talents will be on stage till April 10. The main fest begins on Ugadi day, that is, April 11.