ND: Four-day Saraswati Veena festival from Apr 13

New Delhi, Apr 12: Music lovers are in for a treat as a four-day Saraswati Veena festival organised by the Veena Foundation and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) opens here tomorrow.

The festival, featuring more than 30 artistes, will be inaugurated by Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR) president Dr Karan Singh. He will also present CDs containing recordings of legendary Veena maestros, books and photographs to IGNCA archives, Veena Foundation Secretary General Raghurama Ayyar said.

Dr L M Singhvi, Founder Chairman of the Veena Foundation will present the award "Veenavadantattvajna" to noted Veena exponent R Venkataraman of Thiruvananthapuram.

The festival, apart from being a celebration of the ancient musical traditions, would also showcase the "Guru-Shishya Parampara" through Kalpagam Swaminathan and S R Padmavathy, R Venkataraman and disciples, Padmavathy Ananthagopalan and disciples and Prema Mallikarjun with five disciples. As many as 25 artistes from Kerala Veena Sangeetha Sanghom will participate in the festival, Mr Ayyar said.

He said the festival will open with rendition of Thyagaraja's "Pancharathan Kritis" by Prema Mallikarjuna accompanied by Nalini Sampath, Geetha Mohan, Veena Venkataraman and Uma Balasubramaniam.

It will be followed by a film "Making of Veena in Tanjore" by Rajeshwari Anand. The inauguration of the festival will be followed by presentation of the Veena foundation award and the programme concludes with a Veena Arpana by R Venkataraman.

The second day's programme opens with "Music in the Woods" a lecture on history and tradition of Veena playing by Rajeshwari Anand. The third day's highlight will be power point presentation on History of Veena in the temples of south India by Prof. Geeta Rajagopalan, Director of Sampradaya Kalashetra, Chennai.

The fourth day's programme on April 21 features veena arpana by Jaysri and Jeyraaj Krishnan, Siva Kumar and Bhagyalakshmi.

IGNCA Programme Director Sabiha Anjum Zaidi said this would be the IGNCA's first attempt to document the Saraswati Veena tradition, more popular and prevalent in south India. In the second phase, efforts would be made to build a data base and document other veena traditions like the Rudra Veena, Vichittra Veena and Chitra Veena traditions.

She said the IGNCA will document the entire festival to enhance its cultural archives and build a data base for future reference and study. Along with the festival, an exhibtion of 50 photographs of leading veena maestros of the past as well as contemporary artistes is also being held.

Entry to the festival, being held at the IGNCA premises is free and the programmes will start at 1500 hrs on all days, she added.

UNI