Mysuru: Nadabrahma Sangita Sabha has organised three Karnatak classical music concerts this weekend at Sangita Kalanidhi Mysore Vasudevacharya Bhavana on JLB Road here.

On Aug.11 (Friday) at  6 pm,  as part of V. Raman Memorial Concert of Raman Boards, Aishwarya Vidya Raghunathan, the young and dynamic artiste, who is making to top level at a very fast pace, will be singing. She  will be accompanied by Senior artistes Nalina Mohan on violin and  B.C.Manjunath on mridanga.

Aishwarya, an accomplished Karnatak music vocalist, is among the foremost and popular young performing classical musicians in India. Hailing from a family of music connoisseurs, Aishwarya was initiated into the world of music at the age of three. Her first full-fledged concert was at the age of thirteen. Since then, she has travelled widely in India and abroad enthralling listeners.

Aishwarya has the honour of being the disciple of musical stalwarts like Sangita Kalaacharya Seethalakshmi Venkatesan, Padma Bhushan P. S. Narayanaswamy and Sangeetha Kalasagaram Vegavahini Vijayaraghavan, thus being an upholder of the Semmangudi bani and the Veena Dhanammal bani.

An “A” graded artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan, Aishwarya holds a B.E. degree in Biotechnology from PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore.

The endowment programme is sponsored by Sudha Raman and Aroon Raman.

On Aug. 12 (Saturday) at 6 pm, Dr. K. Srikantaiah Memorial Concert  will be presented by Veteran  Dr. Suma Sudheendra on veena accompanied by seasoned artistes J.K. Sridhar on violin, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on mridanga and S.N. Narayana Murthy on ghata. The concert is sponsored by Dr.K.S. Chandrashekar.

Suma Sudheendra is one of the acclaimed veena artistes of the country today. Trained under Veena Maestros Raja Rao and Chitti Babu, she has blended into her music the classical conservatism at the dynamic spirit of innovations. She has been conferred Ganakala Shree title by Karnataka Gana Kala Parishat.

Suma’s biggest contribution to the music world is her innovation  ‘Tarangini Veena’ which is a small version of Saraswati Veena, very compact and light,  to be comfortably portable. Her organisation Tarangini Arts Foundation conducts cultural festivals every year to promote the cause of Indian classical music apart from imparting lessons in veena and classical music. She received Rajyotsava Award from Karnataka Government in  2001.

She started learning vocal at the age of five and veena at eight.  Secured first rank in Vidvat and went to Madras to learn veena from Dr. Chitti Babu. She has played jugalbandis with almost all the leading artistes of North India like Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Shahid Parvez. She has her own band for the last 25 years called  ‘Megha’, where they play Fusion, Karnatak and Jazz. Suma has released about 25 music albums

On Aug.13 (Sunday) at 5.30 pm, Pattabhiram Pandit will be giving a vocal concert with V.V.S.Murari on violin and  N. Arul on mridanga. It is an endowment programme in memory of Dr.K.V. Manohar sponsored by Dr. Uma  and Dr. K.V. Ravishankar.

Pattabhiram initially learnt from his mother Nagarathnamma and then from Vallabham Kalyanasundaram (who is the sister of Vageyyakara Mayuram Vishwanatha Sastri).  He is an IT professional working in a multinational company in Bengaluru.