Veteran vocalist and composer Madurai G.S.Mani was conferred with the Nadabrahmam Sadguru Sri Tyagaraja Swami Puraskar at a function on Friday.
He was the first recipient of the award instituted by Chennai Fine Arts, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of classical music and cultural values. The award, comprising citation, cash and a shawl was presented to Mr. Mani for his outstanding contribution to Carnatic music spanning seven decades as a performer, teacher and composer.
Recalling his friendship with Mr. Mani for over six decades and how Mr. Mani nurtured passion for music from a young age, musicologist B.M. Sundaram said Mr. Mani, who composed songs in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit, was well versed in Hindi and Urdu. Sharing anecdotes about their friendship, he said they used to discuss music in detail and Mr. Mani wrote songs spontaneously. He was associated with film music directors duo of M.S.Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy for several years and scored music for Tamil films, Mr. Sundaram added.
Renowned Thavil player Haridwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel said it was an honour to be felicitating such an eminent personality. He recollected his memories of meeting Mr. Mani and Mr. Sundaram during his younger days.
Replying to the felicitation, Mr. Mani thanked CFA for choosing him as the first recipient of the award and considered it as a blessing to receive on it the 256th Tyagaraja jayanthi celebrations.
CFA’s founder and managing trustee P.N. Muralidharan said this was the 20th year since the organisation was founded. Besides organising annual music festivals and workshops, CFA has instituted many awards to felicitate renowned personalities on Carnatic music and literature, he added.
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