Renowned vocalist Sistla Vasundhara Devi was befittingly honoured and conferred with the title Sangeetha Sudhanidhi last Sunday at an event jointly organised by the management committees of Sree Kanchi Kamakoti Maha Samsthan, Sree Sankara Matham and Sree Vijaya Thyagaraja Sangeetha Sabha.
A name for felicitous exposition of Carnatic music in the Thanjavur diction, which she imbibed from guru Padma Bhushan Sripada Pinakapani, Vasundhara, by choice has many a performance to her credit in and outside the country besides being a graded artiste of Akashvani. Having deeply probed into the need and feasibility of making Carnatic music part and parcel of rural development programmes with remarkable innovations in the teaching methods, she presented a paper at the All India Oriental Conference held at the port city in 1989.
Vasundhara, while being offered Gurupeetha Satkaram by Sri Foundation, USA, was conferred upon the title Ganapraveena. She was also honoured by Vintage Visakha, Vedik Seva and Kurella Trusts besides being the recipient of LSRK Sastry memorial award.
The distinguished vocalist and musicologist held the reigns of Sri Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu Kalakshetram (College of Music and Dance) as its principal for over 12 years in its formative stages.
Renowned advocate and former mayor of Visakhapatnam, D.V. Subba Rao, and his wife Sarvalakshmi Subba Rao offered Dampathi Satkaram first to the couple Vasundhara Devi and her husband Bhaskara Rao, on the occasion. The programme concluded with a recital (vocal) presented by Lalitha Chandrasekhar (disciple of Vasundhara) in the company of M. Neeladri Rao on violin and D. Dharma Rao on mridangam.
