Senior musicians were presented with annual awards of Nadhadweepam Trust in the city at its 21st anniversary celebration on Monday.
The Nadhadweepa Kalanidhi award was presented to mridanga vidwan Mannargudi A. Easwaran and the Nadhadweepa Rathnakara award went to nadaswaram vidwans S. Kasim and S. Babu. The title of Nadhadweepa Seva Rathna was conferred on N. Gopalaswamy, Director, Dalmia Cement (Bharat). The awardees were presented with medals, citation and cash purses.
The awards were presented by Cleveland V.V. Sundaram, who highlighted the lineage of ‘Semmangudi Paadaantharam’in the music of Tiruchi K. Ramesh, the managing trustee of Nadhadhweepam Trust. He also lauded Mr. Ramesh for his yeoman service to Carnatic music and propagating the memory of Semmangudi R. Srinivasa Iyer.
J. Balasubramanian presided the event and appreciated the trust for selecting and honouring befitting music stalwarts year-on-year. Nagai R. Muralidharan recalled the significant contributions of the awardees.
The Nadhadweepa Kalanidhi award was instituted in 2003 and so far 17 veteran artistes have been honoured with the title. The Nadhadweepa Rathnakara and Nadhadweepa Seva Rathna awards were instituted in 2014 and six eminent artistes and an equal number of music connoisseurs have been conferred with the titles, respectively, till this year.
A four-day music festival is underway in Srirangam as part of the anniversary of the Trust and 111th birth anniversary celebration of Semmangudi R.Srinivasa Iyer.
