Shreya Devnath of Chennai held the audience spellbound with her violin recital at Sri Venugopala Swamy temple here on Sunday during the Thyagaraja Aradhanotsavam organised by Sri Sangameswara Sangeetha Samakhya.
A disciple of Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, Shreya began her concert with a varnam in Bhouli ragam and Adi talam, which was composed by her guru. Sadguru Charan of Vijayawada supported her on mridangam, while Bhusurapalli Venkateswarlu of Guntur lent support on ghatam.
The audience, which included veteran musician Peddada Surya Kumari, enjoyed the concert and gave a big round of applause at the end of every item. “Annamacharya keertanas have a special place in the hearts of people here. That is why I have incorporated some keertanas in today's performance,” Shreya said, before commencing the recital.
There was pin drop silence in the auditorium when she was reciting the kriti Ninne nammitinayya , a composition of Mysore Vasudevachar in Simmendri Madhyama ragam and Mishrachapa talam.
A student of economics in Chennai, Shreya gave her debut performance in Chennai's December music festival of 2009. The performance in Pithapuram was her first in Andhra Pradesh. “I liked this place very much and relating the audience to the performance is the challenging task for any artiste,” she said. She said that her goal was to learn the art and perform it before diverse audience. “I am fortunate enough to have a guru like Lalgudi sir. He is not an individual, but an institution. He is very patient and takes special care of each and every student,” she explained.
After enthralling the audience for about three hours, Shreya concluded her concert with a thillana, composed by Lalgudi G. Jayaraman in Durga raga. President and secretary of the Samakhya, P.V.P. Radhesh, and Akondi Madhusudan, chairman of Jayalakshmi Bank, Rayavarapu Seetaramanjaneyulu, Shreya's parents D.P. Devnath and Lakshmi Devnath and others were present.
