VDS Arts Academy, Nungambakkam High Road, celebrated its 17th anniversary recently. Renowned Carnatic vocalists ‘Bombay Sisters’ C. Saroja and C. Lalitha were the chief guests. On the occasion, they both presented awards and prizes to teachers, students and accompanying artists. Teachers — Rajalakshmi Srinivasan (vocal); C.N. Srinivasamurthy (violin); B. Ganesh (mridangam) and Anita Guha (Bharatanatyam) were recognised as ‘Best Gurus.’
Accompanying artists — Girija Ramaswami (vocal), Dhananjayan (mridangam) Kandadevi and S. Vijaya Raghavan (violin) were honoured.
Winners of various other events conducted in the year 2012: G. Abilash, S. Srivatsan, and S. Suchitra, won first, second, and third place respectively in vocal competition; S. Sayee Rakshith and G. Karthik secured the first place in violin and mridangam competition respectively.
A music concert by the Bombay Sisters was presented with Usha Rajagopalan on violin; Chidambaram S. Balakrishnan on mridangam and Adambakkam K. Shankar on ghatam.
M. Chander, president of the academy, welcomed the gathering and K. Sridhar, vice-president of the academy, proposed a vote of thanks.
