Eminent musicians attend the 22nd edition of Rajalakshmi Fine Arts’ September Season Festival

Coimbatore has no old association with Carnatic music. Yet today, the annual September season festival, organized by Rajalakshmi Fine Arts, attracts visitors from all over South India. There was also a Rasika, who had come from America to attend the 11-day festival, which is in its 22nd year.

“This annual festival is bringing together the best of musicians, and is also providing a platform to the youth,” said Satish Kumar, a Dubai-based surgeon and founder of Rajalakshmi Fine Arts. A trained musician, Dr. Satish felt the need to give back to his hometown, and conceived this festival, which is named after his mother.

According to eminent singer Bombay Jayashree, the festival has carved a special place for itself in the cultural calendar of Tamil Nadu.

The success of the festival lies not only in its formidable line-up and impeccable arrangements, but also in the care taken to curate the content, the artists sometimes themed, or the list of previously presented or commonly presented compositions. is not given.

While the concert is going on, interesting information about ragas, compositions and musicians is displayed on the screen for the benefit of the audience. Teachers and students from music schools and colleges are invited to participate in the festival, which is otherwise a ticketed event.

“This is the only ticketed classical music festival in Coimbatore,” said Dr. Satish.

Lasting impact

Bombay Jayashree has been featured in the festival every year since its inception, and was also the first recipient of the festival’s ‘Isai Manimakutam’ award. She was full of praise for how the audience has been carefully nurtured over the years. Jayshree’s singing at the festival had a meditative quality about it, and her music remained with the audience even after the concert ended.

Jayashree, who was also the guest of honour at this year’s ceremony, sang three renowned accompanists – J. Vaidyanathan (Mridangam), H.N. Bhaskar (violin) and S. The awards were presented to Karthik (Ghatam). Rajalakshmi Fine Arts’ S. Vijayjay shared that this was the first time since the inception of the festival that the accompanists were felicitated.

The chief guest at the function was 101 year old Mridangam scholar TK Murthy.

Held after a gap of three years, this edition of the September season featured renowned musicians like Aruna Sairam, Sudha Ragunathan, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Ranjani-Gayatri, Raman Balachandra (Veena), Ramakrishnan Murthy and JA Jayant among many others.

Chandana Child Welfare. , photo credit: special arrangement

There was an unusual concert by Mumbai-based Carnatic singer Chandana Bala Kalyan. His presentation focused on the works of poets such as Andal, Purandardasar, Kabir, Meera, Jaidev, Bulleh Shah and Amir Khusro. Chandana performed these songs in a variety of genres – folk music, ghazals, qawwali, abhanga – but the underlying thread remained Carnatic music.

With the youth and a large segment of the audience being formed nowadays, the major factor in such festivals is the execution.

Critics of Delhi write on classical music.