The Music Academy, the premier institution promoting Carnatic music here, has been granted the status of a research centre by the Karnataka-based Tumkur University, N. Murali, president of the Academy, said.
In a press release here, Mr. Murali stated that researchers could enrol themselves with the Academy for a Ph.D programme under the guidance of stalwarts in the field. The Academy, an 84-year-old institution, is running advanced school of Carnatic music, offering a three-year diploma course.
As far as the Ph.D programme is concerned, Pappu Venugopala Rao, one of the secretaries of the Academy, said that in the beginning only four or five persons would be admitted for the research programme.
“We have five academic council members who hold a doctorate in music and can guide students. Though one member can guide five students, we don't want to take a lot of them immediately as we are keen on raising the standards of research.”
Besides Mr. Venugopala Rao, N. Ramanathan, S.A.K. Durga, R.S. Jayalakshmi and Rita Rajan are the other members who hold a doctorate.
Mr. Murali said that the library in the academy had more than 5,000 specialised books and digital listening archives for 5,000 hours. It was aiming to digitise around 20,000 hours of music.
