Singer Sudha Ragunathan was felicitated on Wednesday for being conferred the M.S. Subbulakshmi Sangita Kalanidhi award last year.
At a function organised by Papanasam Sivan Karnataka Sabha in Madipakkam, V. Shankar, president of Shanmukhananda Sabha, Mumbai, said the felicitation was not only for Ms. Ragunathan as a singer, but also for her being a wonderful human being.
Apart from taking the art to great heights, Ms. Ragunathan, he said, had so far donated Rs. 1.25 crore to vulnerable sections of society.
Stating that artistes of the present generation had a formidable advantage with the advances in science and technology, Mr. Shankar urged the singer to take the greatness of classical music far beyond the borders of the country.
In her acceptance speech, Ms. Ragunathan said she was being felicitated for the first time after receiving the prestigious award from the Music Academy. “I am only a representative of the award, but there are several people who have made enormous sacrifices for me to reach this level,” she said, adding that her guru Dr. Vasanthakumari, husband Mr. Ragunathan and their children were the source of her strength and support as her accompanying artistes were for team work.
She also dedicated all her accolades to the rasikas, stating that ultimately, her music reached them.
She said she was continuing with the same dedication, whether it was a concert or just an invocation song, with which she began singing many years ago. She had a word of gratitude to the rasikas for being the motivating factor behind her performances.
Geetha Bennett, Veena exponent and Nagai Mukundan, religious discourse artiste also offered their felicitations. N. Thiagarajan, president of the Sabha, said they were conducting the annual classical concert for the 24th year in succession. They hoped to conduct it on a larger scale for the silver jubilee concert next year.
Ms. Ragunathan then presented a concert with B. Vraghavendra Rao, Neyveli Skanda Subramanian, A.S. Krishnan and M.R. Narayanan on the violin, mridangam, morsing and tambura respectively.
