There is a need to enhance finance for classical music just as there is an urgency to restore classical values in finance, Y.V. Reddy, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said on Sunday.
Mr. Reddy, who presented the Sangita Kalanidhi title to mridangam maestro Trichy Sankaran at ‘Sadas,' the finale of the Music Academy's 85 annual conference and concerts, drew parallels between finance and the fine arts and said: “If the core of banking is finance and everything else revolves around it, the core of music is classical music.”
Pointing out that classical music all over the world required public support, Mr. Reddy said enhancing finance for classical music and classical values in finance would enrich everyone globally.
Mr. Reddy hailed the Toronto-based mridangam exponent as a multi-faceted genius who excelled as classical musician and teacher and contributed to the “globalisation of classical music.”
“I feel that we do not have enough globalisation of classical music. On the contrary, in money and finance there is too much of globalisation and too much of finance. My submission is it is time to roll back too much finance and roll forward music, especially classical music,” he said.
Lauding the Music Academy for its yeoman service in reviving, maintaining, propagating and developing classical music and making the December music festival perhaps the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, Mr. Reddy said the best compliment to the institution had come from Trichy Sankaran himself when he recently stated that he came here every year to recharge himself and felt at peace after playing here.
Mr. Reddy also presented the Sangita Kala Acharya award to vocalists Vidushi Neela Ramgopal and Vidushi Rama Ravi, the “TTK' Award to Vidvan Mayavaram Somasundaram (kanjira) and Vidushi T.R. Navaneetham (flute), and the Musicologist Award to M.B. Vedavalli.
Awards were also given to senior and junior artistes for outstanding performances at the festival.
Veena exponent Karaikudi Subramanian felicitated Mr. Sankaran.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Sankaran paid tributes to his parents (the late Subbaraya Iyer and Subbalakshmi), his first tutor Poovalur A. Venkataraman, mentor in the early days of his career M.N. Kandaswamy Pillai, and guru Palani M. Subramania Pillai of the Pudukottai parampara. The title was also an honour to the entire percussion fraternity.
Deeming it his good fortune to have played in accompaniment to three generations of musicians, Mr. Sankaran said while care should be taken to preserve Carnatic tradition musical and rhythm sensibilities and aesthetics, tradition is not static and can accommodate innovative changes within boundaries.
N. Murali, President, Music Academy, said the fortnight-long festival had been remarkably successful in terms of the quality and variety of performances, response from rasikas, scholarship of the academic sessions and the generous sponsorship.
Also, during the festival Sangita Kalanidhi R.K. Srikantan had instituted two endowments for annual endowment programmes featuring the compositions of eminent composers from Karnataka, he said.
Later, Mr. Murali and Shobha Sekhar, Director, Kalakruthi School of Music, Melbourne, exchanged MoUs for academic collaboration between the two institutions.
Office-bearers of the Music Academy K.V. Krishna Prasad, Pappu Venugopala Rao, R. Seshasayee, N. Gopalaswami, B.M. Sundaram, R. Ramakrishnan, N. Ramji, Malathi Rangaswami and C.V. Karthik Narayanan, participated.
