Chennai Carnatic Music Festival 2004-2005

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone:

 

I know a good number of you enjoy Carnatic music (i.e., South Indian

classical music, which is rather profoundly different from the North

Indian, or Hindustani system).

 

So I just wanted to let you know that the 2004-2005 Chennai Carnatic

Music Festival will be getting underway in that city in about a week

-- on December 9, and will continue thru mid-January. And this year,

people from around the world can attend without leaving the comfort

of their homes (as I'll explain below).

 

Popularly known as the 'Music Season,' the festival features a host

of music halls called "Sabhas" organizing Kutcheris [Carnatic music

concerts] for which performers gather from across India and recently

from the diaspora around the world. The Madras music festival has

also been recently acknowledged to be Asia's biggest cultural event.

 

Kutcheris are the primary means of disseminating the artform to the

Carnatic music 'rasika' [enthusiast or connoiseur]. Modern Kutcheris

range in from an hour to 4 hours in length depending on the setting,

audience and performer moods, etc.

 

This year, an Indian cable company will be telecasting around 20

concerts live (and archived through their website), beginning on

December 9th. Many famous Carnatic artistes such as Unnikrishnan,

Anuradha Sriram, Sudha Raghunathan, Dr.K.J. Yesudas and S. Sowmya

will be part of this presentation and the offering will also include

dance programs and stage dramas by eminent troupes. For further

details, visit http://www.numtv.com

 

For those of you lucky enough to be able to attend in person, a

constantly updated schedule and (once the festival is underway)

extensive live coverage is available here:

 

http://carnatica.net/season2004/main.htm

 

For those of you who would be happy with just a small sample or two,

to see what all the fuss is about, the Sangeetam company offers an

excellent selection of recordings from past seasons here (with free

sound samples):

 

http://www.sangeetham.com/scart/home.php3

 

Just click on "December Season" at the right side of the page.

 

Enjoy!

 

DB