Monday, December 3, 2018

Getting ready for the Chennai music season 2018

Folks, the Chennai music season is around the corner! It is time to gather the various programme sheets, plan your visits and go to sabhas to get the season or daily tickets not to miss out the culinary delights!

Here is a quick look at the prime time programs.

Our dearest "Thala" aka Sanjay Subrahmanyan rules
the roost with 13 concerts in this season, all on prime time. He just returned from the grand finale of the Edapally Sangeetha Utsavam. Rasikas are waiting for this feast as well as dusting their Tamil literature books. One thing you can trust Sanjay to do is the way he would bring out a great Tamil poet from Sangam or modern literature and bring it to life.  Never miss out the new year (1st Jan 2019) concert at Sivagami Pethachi auditorium (in the premises of M.Ct.M  School) where a 4-hour marathon session awaits the fans. This concert has started to acquire a mark of its own. Here is to the "Men in White" - the triumvirate - Sanjay, Varadarajan and Venaktesh.

Trichur brothers are one to watch out. Last time, they got a standing ovation at the academy with their fine selection of songs. For the last few years, they have been performing at the morning / afternoon slot. It will be interesting to watch their selection of ragas and kritis.


The following four are the emerging players and continue to rock.
- Bharat Sundar (10 concerts)
- Kunnakudi Balamurali (12)
- Ramakrishnan Murthy (11)
- Sandeep Narayan (12)


Most of their free concerts, during the last season were completely full indicating their popularity and growing stature.







We have the usual Gurucharan, Abhishek Raghuram, Saketa Raman, Malladi brothers. I see the talented Ashok Ramani in fewer concerts this season.

Where is Sriram Parthasarathy? I would like to seek him out for the bubbly atmosphere he creates.

On the women front, Sudha Raghunathan has 8 concerts. Don't forget to go for her Christmas day concert at Krishna Gana Sabha. That is extremely special. Gayathri Venkatraghavan has 9 concerts vouching for her rise. Mahati can be seen at 1.30 PM slot in the academy on 18th Dec. Another melodious pair is Ranjani-Gayatri scheduled for 7 programs including the 4 PM slot at academy.

More updates on the sabha canteens soon...

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