Two artistes from Tamil Nadu – Bharathanatyam exponent Alarmel Valli and nagaswaram player Injikudi E.M. Subramaniam – will perform at the Salzburg Music Festival, a dream event for artistes across the world.
Since 1920, top artistes from around the world culminate every year in the Austrian city for over 200 performances. This year, the Indian artistes will participate in ‘Ouverture spirituelle – Hinduism’, an exclusive presentation on Hinduism.
The festival, to be held between July 15 and August 30, 2015, is expected to draw over 2.5 lakh people and the tickets have already been sold out.
“It is a great honour. I have been allotted one and half hours and I will present a solo performance with my troupe,” Ms. Alarmel Valli told The Hindu . She will also participate in a symposium on dance.
Dr.V. Nagasamy, a renowned Indologist and former director of the Archaeology Department, who has attended the festival twice, played a role in identifying the artistes for the festival. Bettina Baumer, of the University of Vienna, a Sanskrit scholar, was very particular about including art forms of Tamil Nadu after witnessing the famed Natyanjali festival in Chidambaram and temple rituals in the State, he said.
Ms. Valli said three religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – were featured at the festival and for the first time Hinduism has been included, adding that dance – a combination of music, theatre and scriptures – would be an appropriate art form to represent India. Her team includes singer Nisha Rajagopal, violinist Hemalatha, nattuvangam Jayashree Ramanathan, flautist Sruthisagar and mridangist Lalgudi Sri Ganesh. Injikudi Subramaniam, born in a family of traditional nagaswaram artistes, will participate with his sibling E.M. Mariappan. They will be accompanied by Puducherry P.M. Saravanan and Gangaikondacholapuram G.M. Sudharsan on thavil.
“We have decided to present a mallari, a unique feature of the nagaswaram tradition. There will be a brief description of the piece, which is played when the presiding deity of a temple in process reaches the entrance,” said Mr. Subramaniam, who will perform on July 25.
Bharathanatyam exponent Alarmel Valli and nagaswaram player Injikudi
E.M. Subramaniam will perform
