The coming week from  May 28 to May 31 there will be  a cultural extravaganza at Nadabrahma Sangeetha Sabha on JLB Road — with 28th being the 152nd birth anniversary of Sangita Kalanidhi Mysore K. Vasudevacharya  and 29th to 31st the legendary T.R.Mahalingam (Flute Mali) Memorial programme.

Vasudevacharya Memorial programme on May 28 at 6 pm is an endowment by K.V. Murthy. Vidu. Suma Rajesh and her disciples of  Spoorthy  School  of  Dance, Bengaluru, will present a Bharathanatyam tribute to the great composer with  Dance Choreographed for Vasudevacharya Compositions under the title  “Vasudeva Namana.” They will be accompanied  by D.V. Prasannakumar on the Natuvanga, D.S. Srivatsa on vocal, N.Narayanaswamy on mridanga and Narasimha Murthy on flute.

Suma Rajesh started training in Bharathanatyam at the age of eight under the tutelage of Guru Kannan Maarar of Hassan and continued learning under Rajyotsava awardee Ambale Rajeshwari of Hassan and Vidushi Kripa Phadke of Mysuru. Currently she is undergoing advanced training under Karnataka Kalashree Guru B.Bhanumathi of Nrithya Kala Mandiram, Bengaluru; training in Natuvanga under Vidwan N.Narayanaswamy and Guru Sheela Chandrasekhar.

T.R. Mahalingam Samsmarana on May 29, 30 and 31 is an endowment by T.R. Mahalingam Samsmarana Vedike convened by late A.V. Prakash and Tyagaraja Sangita Sabha, Mysuru.

On 29th at 6 pm, Sameer L. Rao will perform Hindustani flute with Adarsh Shenoy on tabla.

Breathing through the Bansuri is the path Sameer opted for himself at the tender age of eleven. Thus the journey began of learning Hindustani classical music playing on the Bansuri under the guidance of Pandit Veerabhadriah Hiremath at Saptaswara Hindustani Music School and Swarasankula Hindustani Music School in Mysuru.

Sameer was fortunate and blessed to have been accepted as a disciple by the world renowned flute wizard Padma Vibhushan Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and has been under his tutelage since 2002. Apart from playing Classical Solo concerts and Jugalbandis, Sameer also accompanies his Guruji, Pandit Chaurasia, on his concerts.

On 30th at 6 pm,  Vid. L.V. Mukund from Bengaluru will present a Karnatak flute recital along with Vid. Venkatesh Josier on violin, Vid. Kumaraswamy on mridanga and Vid. M.S.Jayaram on ghata.

‘Belakavadi family’ is one of the most renowned music families in Karnataka. Members of this family have been Asthana Vidwans of the erstwhile Mysore Palace. Mukund belongs to this family on his maternal side. Mukund had his early guidance in vocal music from his mother, Vidu. Radha Vijayaraghavan. Observing his keen interest to learn the flute, his father Prof. Vijayaraghavan put him under the able guidance of Vid. Prapancham Balachandran, who has been guiding and encouraging him. He is currently learning higher aspects of vocal music from his maternal grandfather, Vid. Belakavadi Rangaswamy Iyengar, a renowned veteran vocalist of Karnataka.

Since his initial days of learning flute, Mukund was attracted to flute maestro Padmashri Dr. N. Ramani’s style of flute playing. He had the great fortune of meeting him in 1996, when the maestro attended one of his performances and blessed him.  Mukund, who worked as a software professional in the US, returned to India in 2004 after resigning his job to pursue music full time.

On the 31st at 5.30 pm, Vid. S.A. Shashidhar and S.Supradeep will add variety by playing a Flute Duet. They will be accompanied on violin by Vid. H.K. Narasimha Murthy, Vid. A. Radhesh on mridanga and Vid. V.S. Ramesh on morching.

Shashidhar, son of S. Anantha Rao and Sathyavathi Anantha Rao, hails from a family of musicians. At the age of 13 inspired by his mother and maternal uncles, he started learning Karnatak Classical Music (flute) under Vid. M.R. Doreswamy. He is also trained under H. V. Krishnamurthy and Anoor S. Ramakrishna. For some time he took training under Padmashree Dr. Ramani also. He has Physics (Hons) degree from Bangalore University and has passed out with distinction in Master’s degree in Music from the same University.

Supradeep, son and disciple of Vidwan S. A. Shashidhar, is  training under Vid. H. S. Sudhindra. He has passed State Junior and Senior music exams securing rank. He is a B high graded artist with AIR Bangalore.  

Venu Brahma title

At 7.30 pm the same day, Vid. K.P. Upadhyaya will be honoured with  Venu Brahma title in memory of T.R. Mahalingam. This will be followed by a short flute concert with same accompaniments. A veteran Flutist born at Karkala on 14.3.1944 to Dr. K.V.K. Upadhyaya and Jayalakshmi, academically an Electrical Engineer, he chose music as profession. He served as the staff artiste at AIR Mysore for 27 years. A creative artiste, Upadhyaya is known for his orchestral compositions and music for light songs.