Homage to gurus

A host of performances enthralled the audience.

The sishya prasishyas of late mridangam vidwans Mahadevu Radhakrishna Raju and his guru Potluri Veeraraghavaiah Chowdary celebrated their vardhanthis in a fitting manner at Gokaraju Laila Gangaraju Kala Vedika, Vijayawada.

The two revered gurus were not only reputed mridangam performers but also great gurus who produced a very large number of mridangam artists, thus doing great service to the field of music. The function was organised by M.R. Raju Memorial Trust instituted by M.L.N. Raju, reputed mridangam vidwan and son of Radhakrishna Raju.

The programme began with 25 students – all around the age of 10 years old – of Parupalli Ramakrishnaiah Pantulu Sangeeta Vidyalayam rendering a number of devotional songs impressively. This was followed by a sweet and tuneful vocal concert by V.L. Tulasi Viswanadh of Rajahmundry. Tulasi, a disciple of veteran vidwan Annavarapu Ramaswamy sports a melodious voice with full range and is an expert in elaborating several rare ragas and intricate pallavis.

She began the concert with a difficult varnam that runs in ateeta graham'and followed it with

Jaya Jaya Swamin in Nata and Tulasidalamulache in Mayamalavagowla. Melodious Bilahari delineation preceded the keertana Kanugontini . Another highlight in Tulasi's concert was Matangi Rajarajeswari in Ramapriya rendered with fine ragam and kalpana swaras. Good support came from B.V. Durga Bhavani on violin, Burra Sriram on mridangam, M.Haribabu on ghatam and Raghuram Hari on the kanjira.