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group of friends woven together by the common
thread of music would frequent the classical music programmes elsewhere in the vicinity. On such journeys these pals deliberated on bringing artistes to
their place itself so that others, who
are deprived of resource or time, can get an opportunity to listen to musicians
of repute. Thus born the Shastreeya Sangeet Sabha at Karkala
in 1992.
The musical odyssey of this humble Sabha
in this small town in over two decades, however, is illustrious. The objective
has been to promote Indian classical music through concerts and workshops and
thus bring about music awareness among the people. Though the initial plan was
to arrange the performance of four artistes per year, in the first year itself around
ten programmes of upcoming artistes of the vicinity as well as reputed artistes
from other places were conducted. Not a
mean task in those days.
The Sabha conducts many Carnatic and Hindustani
concerts. The programmes, in fact, have come
in attractive packages and the occasional festivals are sumptuous treat to the
music lovers.
The Sabha was conducting Udupi and Dakshina
Kannada district level competitions in vocal, musical instruments and
percussion instruments for the young singers in both Carnatic and Hindustani
categories under Kala Sadhana. Though the competition received an overwhelming
response in the initial years, it failed to draw competent singers in
subsequent years. Hence the event was discontinued after ten years, now the
programme is renamed the late Yogish Baliga Kala Sadhana, in memory of one of
its founders wherein the Sabha provides platform for the young talents of the twin
districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada and the neighbouring Kasaragod in Kerala
to exhibit their talents.
Shastreeya Sangeet Rasaratri was an all-night
music programme for some years. As the crowd dwindled post midnight this too was
discontinued. Instead the organizers chose
a Sunday in a year where music programmes were held from 9 am to 9pm.
The three-day National Youth Music
Festival conducted in 1999 featured artistes from all around the country. Dr Prakash
Shenoy, general secretary of the Sabha, proudly admits that all the then
upcoming artistes who performed in Karkala are well-known today. Artistes like
Pravin Godkhindi, Salil Bhatt, Sandeep Chatterjee, D R Raju, Ranjani Hebbar, Chandan
Kumar, Shaunak Abhisheki and Sumedha Desai regaled the discerning audience at
the grand event.
For four years Tataka Sangeeth Mahotsava
was conducted from evening to midnight.
The oil lamps around the tank of Sri Venkataramana Temple lent a divine ambience
to the event. The week-long Shastreeya
Sangeeta Saptaha marked the decennial year.
“Funds have never been a problem”, says Dr
Shenoy. Though entry is free for most of
the programmes, the Sabha collected the
necessary fund through passes and
tickets for its large scale event in
the fifth year.
Karkala has been a stop in the musical
itinerary of well-known performers like Vidyabhushan, Ullas Bapat, Ajith Kadkade, Ronu
Mujumdar, Vishwamohan Bhatt, Zakir
Hussein, Rajkumar Bharati, Vittal Ramamurthy , M S Sheela, N Ramani, Sreenath
Marathe, Mandolin Srinivas, Sudha Raghunathan, Parvin Sulthana, Pt. Hariprasad
Chaurasia, Shubha Mudgal, Jesudas, M S Gopalakrishnan, Nityashree Mahadevan,
Nakod Brothers and Tarun Bhattacharya. The
Sabha, would have had a strong influence on Mahalakshmi Shenoy, an acclaimed
Hindustani vocalist hailing from Karkala during her formative years.
So far the Sabha has hosted the concerts
of more than 500 artistes. The fact that
the performance of Sabha inspired the birth of a couple of similar associations
elsewhere in the vicinity speaks volumes about the track record of the Sangeet
Sabha. But unlike other organisations,
Shastreeya Sangeet Sabha does not restrict itself to any one discipline,
instead gives equal footage to both Carnatic and Hindustani music. The programmes draw music aficionados from
far and wide. The grand music programmes
were an oasis in those days of rare musical events.
Currently S. Nityananda Pai, is leading
the association, as its president. “We were not aware of the enormity of
classical music, but the programmes have driven us crazy about music”, once said
one of the patrons Dr Adyantaya, reminisces Dr. Shenoy. Though one of the objectives was to bring
about music awareness, today Sabha at the threshold of silver jubilee year, has
achieved much more than its objective.
It has developed a kind of music culture in this little town of historic
significance.
--Sanoor Indira Acharya
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