SEASONS E-PAPER

l December 20, 2014

SEASONS
DAILY
A DAILY FREE NEWSPAPER ON THE MUSIC & DAN CE FES TIVAL

This news-sheet for the December Season

will also be posted online at the KutcheriBuzz
website - www.decseason.blogspot.in Daily
from Dec.15 onwards.
This allows people who missed their copies
at the sabhas where the Daily is circulated
daily at about 6 pm and rasikas living abroad
to read it.
Share your feedback kutcheribuzz@gmail.com

FOCUS ON NAGASWARAM

Kalakshetra Fest
opens Dec.20
Kalakshetras 62nd art fest takes off on Dec.20 and goes on
till Dec.30. It offers a mix of dance dramas created by Rukmini
Devi and now performed by Kalakshetra artistes, and dance
and music concerts.
On Dec.22, at the Bharatanatyam margam recital, the Kalakshetra faculty have choreographed each piece individually.
A Vishaka Hari musical discourse is on Dec.23 evening.
Tickets can be booked in advance - advisable to do this if
you want to watch the dance dramas which are a big draw. Last
year, these shows were sold out well ahead of the shows.

T. M. KRISHNA FILM /
NOON SHOW

This was a morning to

celebrate nagaswaram ( not
nadaswaram). And all the
men who had made it great. It
was also a morning to remind
ourselves that this music has
been relegated to the sidelines. And as clear indication
of that status is how sabhas
treat this music.
Geeta Rajagopals new
book. The Celestial Nagaswaram; Origin, Myths, Reception and they Maestros was
formally launched at the Raga
Sudha hall in Luz earlier in
the week.
It was a small function on
a morning when the city was
blessed with a brief shower and it ended with a crisp
nagaswaram recital by S. R. G.
S. Mohandoss and his group
giving us a treat of the music
that it played at distinctly four
different occasions, at religious
and social ceremonies.
V. Sankar, who heads the
famed Shanmukhananda
Academy in Mumbai and was
the chief guest traced the origin
of music and the great heights
that nagaswaram had climbed
but moaned the state that it is
in today.
Somebody must study
this decline.how did a music
which reigned supreme for a
long time and was practiced
by so many greats has fallen

the temples which holds this

music tradition.
The book costs Rs.1200
and is available at Karnatic
Book House.

l Geetha (photo on left) has

two other books to her name.
Music Rituals in the Temples of
South India and Sri Muthuswami
Diskhitar; Exploring the six facets
of the Genius. The first book was
a result of a fellowship given by
Sangeet Natak Akademi
to this level today, said the
speaker.
Geetha Rajagopal who
learnt music in Bangalore went
on to study it deeply and has
been involved in research and
writing and documentation.
She heads Sampradaya, which
documents south Indian music
heritage.
Sampradaya provided lots
of material for Geethas book
for which she spent lots of time
visiting hundreds of temples
to talk to families and artistes.
She is thankful to the Semponnarkoil nagaswaram parampara for lots of inputs, especially
maestro S. R. G. Rajanna who
was present at this event.
The book records the tradition in Kerala, Karnataka
and Andhra and has a section
of photos of the masters and

SABHAS COMMENT
A rasika attending concerts at Vani Mahal had written
about her audio experience in the hall and the chatter backstage that affected the artistes. Below is the gist of a reply by
Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha secretary, J. Krishnamachary We regret the report of the backstage chatter at Vani
Mahal; the source was the team which web casts the concert.
Regarding the audio system experience, we have not received
any complaints from rasikas or artistes.

www.kutcheribuzz.com

The T M Krishna film One which captures a concert set

in the pristine blue hills of the Nilgiris and shot with special
accessories by film maker Jayendra is now being screened at
Escape theatre at Express Avenue mall. Noon shows for a week.
Jayendra and his team had previously shot a full concert by
Krishna and Bombay Jayashri inside a concert hall ( minus the
audience).

CANTEEN BUZZ

Managers of the restaurant at Sri Krishna Gana

Sabha better get into the act if they wish to cater to
hungry rasikas. The staff are a few and people have to
crowd at the kitchen counter to grab a dosa or coffee
between concerts. For NRIs busy shopping for podi-s
and mixes, the racks with branded foodstuff from
Sri Krishna Sweets is easy to pick up though.

SEASONS DAILY

Vocalist K. J. Yesudoss was presented an award for his lifetime achievements at the opening
evening of the December season arts festival of Chennai Cultural Academy, T. Nagar. Others
who were honored were dance guru Madurai Muralidharan and theatre actor Kovai Padmanabhan. The academys concerts are held at the Karnataka Sangha hall, Habibullah Road, T. Nagar.

USE TECH TO SELL TICKETS.

WHY ARE SABHAS
SHYING AWAY?

Rasikas wait their turn to buy season tickets at the Music Academy
which were issued on Dec.2. All types of tickets were sold out, the
office said.

By N. Srikumar
Why is the centralised
on-line booking of sabha
tickets a great idea that
must be implemented. Here
are my points 1. Season Tickets: Most
sabhas start distributing season tickets a fortnight before
the start of festivals. These are
often given only in person or to
an authorised representatve
carrying proof of identity. Here
too typically not more than two
season tickets are given irrespective of need or family size.
For Music Academy, rasikas
queue up at pre-dawn - how
can outstation rasikas benefit
here? Some sabhas like Narada
reserve season tickets for outstation rasikas and even accept
cheques. But the rider is - its
got to be a local cheque. How
can people outside Chennai
observe this?
Daily Tickets: Some
sabhas like Parthasarathy and

About Us

KutcheriBuzz is a website for classical music

and dance with a focus on South India.
It covers the season 24 x 7.

Thyaga Brahma Gana issue

tickets for all prospective dates
on a first come basis which
is good, whereas others like
Narada issue daily tickets only
a day prior to the event. Music
Academy follows a two stage
approach to issue daily tickets.
Timings are early in the day for
concerts held in the evening.
People haves to run up and
down. Why make us run?
Ticket Rates: While the
cheapest season ticket is from
Rs 1500 ( Music Academy) to
Rs. 2500 ( Narada ). Why this
huge difference? For concerts of
top grade artistes, ranges from
Rs 100/- ( a chair at Bharat
Kalachar hall) while another
sabha charges Rs 200 for chairs
in a wedding hall. How come?
In air-conditioned sabhas
too with comparable facilities,
there is no standardisation in
rates. The lowest daily ticket in
one isRs 150 ( Music Academy)
whereas for the same artiste
another sabha charges Rs 300

How to contact us!

77, C.P. Ramasamy Road, Alwarpet,

Chennai-18. Phones : 24993767 / 24994599
email : kutcheribuzz@gmail.com
www.kutcheribuzz.com.

(Krishna Gana Sabha).

Currently Brahma Gana
Sabha provides on-line booking
of daily tickets but why does it
charge more than the face value
of the ticket while using on line ticket booking facility? Do
we pay extra for that service?
Rasikas dont mind even the
non transparency in the differentiated higher rates so long
as tickets are made available
easily.
For a fest that is unique and
targets national/NRI audiences,
technology must be used, and
used practically.

Day One of the Natya Darshan seminar at the Bhavans,

Mylapore had a recital by Uma Sathyanarayan (3rd photo)
and lec-dems by Aniruddha Knight (1st photo) and by
Shyamala Mohanraj (2nd photo). The seminar is on till
Dec.21. This is a Kartik Fine Arts event.