Ganabharathi is organising a veena concert in memory of Veena Maestro S. Balachandar at Veene Seshanna Bhavan on Apr.12 at 6 pm. Veteran veena player Vid. D. Balakrishna will render a veena concert.

He will be accompanied on veena by his disciple Vid. Srinivasa Prasanna, Vid. G.S. Ramanujan on mridanga and Vid. Phaneendra Bhaskar on ghata.

Artistes’ Profile

D. Balakrishna is the son and disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr. Mysore V. Doreswamy Iyengar (Padmabhushana Awardee), who was a Veena artiste par excellence of the glorious Mysore School of Veena playing.

He underwent rigorous training under the tutelage of his father since childhood. He has given innumerable duet performances with his father as well as critically acclaimed solo performances in India and abroad.

He is ‘A Top’ Graded artiste of All India Radio and has brought laurels to Karnataka by performing numerous national programmes on AIR and Doordarshan. Apart from solo concerts, he has played numerous jugalbandhis with eminent artistes like Sangeetha Kalanidhi M. Chandrashekaran, Ustad Bahuddin Dagar, Pandit Rajeev Taranath and Pandit Debiprasad Ghosh to name a few.

Balakrishna is a recipient of many prestigious awards and honours like the ‘Best Veena Player’ from Madras Music Academy in the years 1979, 1991, 1996, 2006 and 2008, Ganakalashri, Vainika Brahma, Kalabhushana, Gaanavaaridhi and many more.

He has toured extensively to give solo performances and also as part of his father’s Pancha Veena troupe.

Vid. Srinivasa Prasanna is promising disciple of Vid. D. Balakrishna.

Vid. G.S. Ramanujan is a senior percussion artiste who is well-versed in both mridanga and ghata. He is one of the senior disciples of Vid. P.G. Lakshminarayana and has accompanied most of the veterans in the field of Karnatak music

Vid. Phaneendra Bhaskar is a promising young artiste who got a good concert experience. He is a disciple of Vid. H.S. Sudhindra.

– A. Radhesh