Jayanagar gets a smart new auditorium

The team of Sri Jayarama Seva Mandali in Jayanagar are feeling good this season as rasikas come by to attend the concerts of the Sri Ramanavami season.

This is an opportunity to show off the newly-designed auditorium.

The work is 80% complete and rasikas have got the the feel of the atmosphere they can now look forward to when concerts or discourses are held at this venue in the months to come.

The auditorium used to be on floor one. It was good though the accoustics weren't.

Now, the new hall is built to provide the best. It is air-conditioned, has a wide spacious stage, is well lit and panelled on all sides.

And the lift provides easy access, especially to senior rasikas.

The new project was budgeted at Rs.185 lakhs with Rs.50 lakhs set aside to renovate the three floors of this complex which adjoins the temple.

Honorary secretary S K Gopalakrishna says that since June 2017, the Mandali has been marking its golden jubilee with a variety of events which will culminate in mid-2018.

The renovation of the building and temple and setting up new facilities is at the core of the jubilee.

This Bengaluru neighbourhood will now have a good auditorium to head to for music and dance and discourses.

Unique postage stamp from Sree Ramaseva Mandali

The team at Sree Ramaseva Mandali in Chamarajpet always present a slew of 'specials' every season. 

This time, it released a special postage stamp under the MyStamp category. The album was released on March 25 by union minister Ananth Kumar at the Big Tent.

The stamp features an image of the Mysore Palace of an image of lord Hanuman which the Mandali uses as backdrop and banner visuals at the Big Tent.

The stamps are limited in number and a private initiative; you cannot buy these stamps at the Bengaluru Post Office. If you are really keen to get one, ask the Mandali team!

Yes, a MyStamp can be used as legal postage in your communication. Yes, anybody can design and get a MyStamp ordered and printed at select post offices that offer this facility.

A sheet of 12 stamps costs Rs.300.

Season tickets sell hot at Chamarajpet

If there is one reason why most Carnatic music rasikas want to be under the Big Top in Chamarajpet for the season's concerts it is probably because they get to listen to top-notch artistes almost every evening.

Perhaps this interest has driven sales of season tickets of Sree Ramaseva Mandali.

The Rs.500 tickets are gone.

Only Rs.300 season tickets remain. That too on sale at the gate.

Be warned that these allow you to occupy the last set of row of chairs; and you can hardly see the artistes from this end.

There are some 2000 chairs arranged under the Big Top here. So your Rs.300 season ticket may not give you a great visual experience.

Ask rasikas who hop from one venue to another during the season, which is their favourite venue and 3 out of 5 indicate the college quadrangle of Seshadripuram College.

Violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh get full house at Big Top; nadaswaram troupe plays to empty space

Union minister H N Ananth Kumar who is into his 6th term as a member of parliament from Bangalore South inaugurated the 80th edition of the Sri Ramanavami Music festival of Sree Ramaseva Mandali under the Big Top at Old Fort School ground in Chamarajpet on Sunday evening - March 25.

Bangalore M. Lakshman and his co-artistes had spent over an hour on stage from 4 p.m., playing the nadaswaram to an empty pandal - this is a shame and must be galling for a set of senior artistes and that too in what is now promoted as a global music fest.

In fact, the inauguration this Sunday limped on - the guests for the inauguration arrived 30 minutes after the nadaswaram concert had been wound up. It appeared as if the nadaswaram is still ticked in to superficially honour a tradition.

There is no reason why a snappy nadaswaram concert curated as part of the launch cannot be held - with the chief guests also listening to it - thus ensuring that a sizable number of rasikas attend.

In contrast, a mandali at Seshadripuram hosted a nadaswaram concert as the main one after its formal inauguration the same evening and had over 300 people attending it.

Back to Chamarajpet - alongside minister Ananth Kumar on stage was Sudha Murthy, head of Infosys Foundation.

A special postage 'MyStamp' was released to mark the 80th edition of the festival of this mandali. 2018 also marks the 50th year of this festival being held at Old Fort School grounds.

The first concert was by violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh - they got a full house. 

In Vyalikaval, OST has two young artistes on his side

O. S. Thiagarajan is a regular Bangalore traveller from Chennai. For he is featured at concerts round the year in the city.

It was his evening on stage for the mandali of the Vyalikaval Extension community.

This colony is a visual delight: this place is like no other in the Sri Ramanavami Season of music that we have covered. The streets are clean, the place tidy, street-space around the temple here is lit up with strings of small lights, mostly strung to trees. The temple is neat and welcoming and the small hall is good for a chamber-like concert.

This Saturday evening ( March 24), OST had with him on stage the veteran violinist  C N Chandrasekar and two young, talented Bangaloreans who have made a name too - Akshay Anand on the mridangam and Sunaad Anoor on khanjira.

OST acknowledged his young co-artistes during the concert and the duo gave off their best.

Bangalore's now has a large crop of young, talented Carnatic musicians who deserve to be seen in Chennai. And some of them are jamming in various quarters.

Once the Vyalikaval concert was over, Sunaad had a 11 p.m. appointment - at an all-night concerts festival at a hall in another part of Bangalore.

OST, as the veteran vocalist is fondly called by rasikas was back in the city on Monday - to perform for the mandali in Seshadripuram. 

Full house for Hindustani concert; in Jayanagar

Saturday evening was full house at the new auditorium of Sri Jayarama Seva Mandali.

Set in the quiet 8th Block quarter of Jayanagar where a new phase of work on the Metro rail system is going on, the weekend evening for just the time for rasikas to catch up with Hindustani music.

Vocalist Jayatheertha Meduri did not disappoint - true to the Hindustani style, he warmed up his audience and then transported them to another realm.

The managers had to bring up their final set of chairs to accommodate late-comers.

Work on the newly-built auditorium is in its final phase so the air-conditioning had to be on and off and with the houseful attendance, it did become a tad stuffy inside.

This venue should become a top-class space for concerts in the weeks to come.

Why isn't this music fest season getting wider coverage?

Bangalore's media does not seem to see the music season at this time of the year as something special.

Its Tourism department, fairly proactive in recent times also does not see the possibility of branding this culture that is here for the asking.  Kerala does it very well - it has just planned a Monsoon Raga festival of music in Thiruvananthapuram.

Why isn't Bangalore presented naturally? No answers yet.

Soaking into election mode perhaps - elections to the Karnataka state Assembly are due soon.

The few reports that one gets to read also seem biased. The stories are on the music fest at Chamarajpet, at the Fort School ground, giving people the impression that this is the only music fest at Sri Ramanavami time.

This is in indeed the biggest fest in terms of vintage, concerts and attendance but there are over a dozen bodies, mostly called mandalis that also host music festivals in various parts of Bangalore.

But this aspect of the cultural season does not appear apparent in the media.