Chennai: Veena Fest features 144 veena artistes

02 September 2016

This year’s Veena Mahotsavam in Chennai, India is set to create a new record – 100 slots featuring 144 veena artistes.

Besides the main artistes, there will be 23 mridangam and 23 ghatam artistes at the concerts and this makes a total of 190 artistes.

The fest is from Sept.9th to 22nd at the smaller hall at Narada Gana Sabha in Alwarpet, Chennai (there will not be fest concerts on Sept. 15th and 17th). The concerts are open to all.

Artistes from USA, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia & Japan are participating in the fest apart from all four southern states in India.

Artistes from Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra are having an evening each.

Says B. Kannan, veena artiste and curator of the fest based in Chennai, “Since 2009 when I started conducting the festival, I should state that I am more than amazed at the ever increasing response both from artistes and rasikas which contribute to the development and propagation of our divine national Instrument – the veena. This is a joint effort of all of us.”

The entire festival will be webcast live through www.kalakendra.com.

Some of the artistes who are featured at the fest include Nirmala Rajasekar, D. Ramadoss from Tanjore, N. Krishnaveni from Hyderabad, T. T. Narendran, Usha Bharadwaj and J. Bharadwaj, Ananya Ashok, Jayalaksmi Sekar, Shanthi Mahesh of Karaikudi and Revathy Krishna.

While on weekdays, the short concerts run through the evening, the schedules are longer on weekends.

Contact Kannan at – kannanveena@hotmail.com