SRI PARTHASARATHY SWAMI SABHA (Regd.)
ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016
The Governing Body have great pleasure in presenting its Annual Report for the year 2015-2016, as well as Audited Statement of Accounts for the year 2015-2016.
At the outset, we would like to inform the Members that in our time-honored tradition, our Sabha continued to stand committed to propagation, preservation and perpetuating values of Indian Classical and Fine Arts.
Towards Music Education
We have been showing special interest towards educating our youngsters specifically and the society (rasikas) at large through music. During the December music festival, the morning sessions included lecture demonstrations by eminent musicologists which received an overwhelming response and attention from all sections – students, professionals and general rasikas within and outside India. Moreover in this year we have included various topics which were useful to the students and researchers.
Carnatic Music classes are being held at 37, V.R. Pillai Street, Triplicane, Chennai-5. We also conduct both theory and practical classes for Music Students studying in correspondence course in various universities for Lower and Higher grades thus helping them to achieve their goals at their exams.
We are happy to inform the Members that the Department of Indian Music, University of Madras, has included our Diploma Certificate, for admission to M.A. Indian Music course.
During the year 2015-2016 programmes were held for 138 days, with nearly 390 performances. This evidently shows our sincere efforts in fulfilling the advancement and objects of our Sabha. We also provide a good number of seats free for General Public for all the Festivals and programmes. Our intention is to get maximum number of people attend these programmes and get benefited.
All our programmes are well attended and well appreciated by the Members of the Sabha, by the Musical fraternity and by the General Public and found to be useful, especially for our Musical Education Programmes.
We have organised Sangeethanjali Programme to Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar, one of the Music Trinities, at Ettayapuram at Sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar Memorial Mandapam on 9.8.2015, Sunday from 9.00 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. Artistes, from Chennai, Tirunelveli, Madurai and Trichy both Vocal and Instrumental took part. They rendered the kritis of Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar. A total number of 10 concerts were performed each 45 minutes of duration.
We have celebrated a unique festival dedicated to the art of Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi. This event which was for three days from 5-7- 2015 to 7-7-2015, was aimed to focus the art of Pallavi singing and its inherent challenges familiar to the audience and to encourage creativity in this musical form.
Bakthi Sangeet utsav programmes exclusively on Bakthi and Devotional Carnatic music was Celebrated from 24-6-2015 to 28-6-2015 at Narada Gana Sabha Hall. This festival was well attended by the Members and by the general public.
115th YEAR DRAMA FESTIVAL
Held from 24th August to 4th September 2015 at Mylapore Fine Arts Club, featured 12 best plays. On 13th September, Drama Festival Award Function at Narada Gana Sabha Hall was held. Dr. Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti Presented Life Time Achievement Award to Veteran Tamil Stage Actor and Legend Sri. Karur Rangaraj. Iyakunar Sigaram Dr. K.Balachander Award to Gurukulam Sri. M.B. Murthy, (Actor, Playwright & Director) and Award of Excellence to Sri. Amirtham Gopal, Gitanjali Theatres. A.R. Srinivasan (ARS ) and Sri. S.Ve. Shekher felicitated the awardees.
On the guidance of Sri Mohan Prasaran, our Vice President and in association with Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, New Delhi, we conducted a 3 days Music Festival in New Delhi from 27th to 29th November at Dr. Ambedkar Auditorium, A.P. Bhawan, New Delhi.
Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2016
A Pan-Indian Musical Extravaganza was celebrated from 30-10-2015 to 8-11-2015 in association with Carnatica. Programmes of Carnatic and Hindustani music were held in the festival. Renowned musicians from all over India participated in this event.
December Music Festival :
This year’s Isai Vizha was special and blessed by His Holiness Sri. Appan Parakala Ramanuja Embar Jeer Swamigal, Sriperumbudur on 13-12-2015, who Inaugurated and conferred the title “Sangeetha Kalasarathy” on Priya Sisters Smt. Shanmukhapriya & Smt. Haripriya, ‘Acharya Kalasarathy’ on Sri. P.S. Narayanaswamy and ‘Dr. M.S. Subbulakshmi Centenary Award’ on Dr. Radha Viswanathan. Padmashree Awardee, Sangeetha Kalasarathy Smt. Aruna Sayeeram (Vice Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademy ) lit the Kuthuvilakku .
We thank Dr. Jaya Arunachalam for providing Vidya Bharathi Hall to celebrate our December music festival and for all our Meetings with fullest cooperation.
News Letter ‘Sangeet Sarathy ’ covering our December Festival Music Concerts with reviews, articles and interviews, with colour photos of the concerts, was a big attraction among music rasikas from India and abroad. We thank the editorial team for bringing out the issues on the correct dates as planned. We sincerely thank Sri. Vedantha Ramanujam, who coordinated with the editorial team and the printers and generously contributed the full cost of printing of the News Letter.
Sri Papanasam Sivan 125 Jayanthi Festival and Dr. M.S. Subbulakshmi Centenary Festival was celebrated for three days. This festival was organized as Global Music Fest from 2-1-2016 to 4-1-2016 in continuation to our December Music Festival. The following awards were presented on the concluding day. Palghat Mani Iyer Centenary award to Haridwaramangalam Sri A.K. Palanivel (Instituted by Dr. Nithyashree Mahadevan), Dwaram Venkataswami Naidu Award to Sri M.A. Sundareswaran ( Instituted by Sri. Mohan Parasaran), Gottuvadyam Narayana Iyengar Award for Visesha Vadyam to Sri Anayampatti S. Ganesan ( Jalatarangam) ( Instituted by Chennai Fine Arts ), G. Ramanathan Award to Smt. S. Mahathi ( Instituted by Sathanur Sri V. Parthasarathy). Distributed Certificates and Cash Award to the Best Performers of our December Music Festival (Afternoon slots) for 2014 & 2015.
DANCE FESTIVAL :
‘Bharat Nrithya Utsav ’ was Celebrated from 18-1-2016 to 12-3-2016 for nearly 55 days. The festival was Inaugurated on 18-1-2016 by Dr. Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti. Smt. Chitra Visweswaran (Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram ) Conferrred the title “Natya Kalasarathy” on Guru Smt. Urmila Sathiyanarayanan. Felicitation By Smt. Priyadarsini Govind, Director, Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai. Smt. Urmila Sathyanarayanan and Students of Natya Sankalpa presented ‘Sauram’ a Thematic Dance Presentation after the Inaugural function.
More than 50 Dance Gurus from all over India participated with their disciples. Nearly 190 artistes from all over India, upcoming dancers of Bharatanatyam and other forms of our Indian classical dance, such as Kuchupudi, Mohinattam, Oddisi, Kathak took part in the long festival . Artistes from U.S. and Singapore also took part in the festival. On the concluding day of the Dance Festival on 19-3-2016 Sri. Mohan Parasaran, gave the Certificates and Cash award to 27 Artistes who performed and were adjudged as Best Performers of the Dance Festival. The festival is becoming extremely popular at National and International level. Kala Darsana Presented ‘Nauka Charitram’ of Saint Thyagaraja by Guru Jayanthi Subramaniam after the function.
Natya Rasaprabandha a three-day Kuchipudi dance drama fiesta was organized in association with Subodhaha Fine Arts and with Saila Sudha Academy of Dance, under the auspices of our Sabha, from June 5th to June 7th 2015, at Narada Gana Sabha Hall. The living legend of the Kuchipudi dance-drama tradition, Sri Vedantam Radhesyam and his troupe from the Kuchipudi village in Andhra Pradesh presented three dance-dramas, namely, Parvati Parinayam, Bhama Kalapam and Bhakta Prahaladha on the three days. The festival was intended to bring to the masses the ethnic dance-drama tradition of the Kuchipudi art, which was well attended.
We are happy to inform the Members that Sri. M. Krishnamurthy, Honorary Secretary of our Sabha was honoured by Narada Gana Sabha with Certiricate of Merit for Organiser of Fine Arts and Karthik Fine Arts presented Kartik Rajagopal Golden Jubilee Award for Best Cultural Organiser at the Inaugural Function of December Music Festival in December 2015.
We are happy to inform the Members that The Mylapore Academy presented Roll of Honour for Contribution to the Tamil State to Sri. M. Rangarajan, one of the Member Governing Body of our Sabha, at a function held on 25th June 2016, at their 47th Annual Award Function.
Lord Sri Parthasarathy Swami graced our Sabha on His way to Ekkatuthangal on 24-1-2016
Our Sabha established in the year 1900, is one of the oldest Sabha’s in Tamilnadu, functioning uninterruptedly from its inception, recalls the extremely dedicated and successive service of past Officer bearers and volunteers. We also place on record the services of some of the present Members of the Governing Body, who are associated with the Sabha for nearly 50 years in various capacities.
We regret to inform with deep sense of sorrow the sad demise of Sri. A. Natarajan, Former Director of Doordarshan and one of the Vice Presidents of the Sabha on 13-2-2016. We place on record our appreciation and gratitude for the valuable services rendered by him and his death is a loss to the Sabha and to the field of fine arts. We also regret to inform with deep sense of sorrow on the passing away of Sri. P.T. Vijayaraghavan, who served as the Member of the Governing Body of our Sabha.
Our sincere thanks are due to the Members for their excellent co-operation. Our sincere thanks are also due to our well-wishers, Vidya Bharathi, Artistes, Press, Industrialists, Philanthropists, Sponsors of our Annual Festivals. We are confident and hopeful that with the blessing of Lord Sri Parthasarathy in whose name our Sabha stands, we will be able to continue our activities with full vigor, in the days to come.
Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha 