Classical music thriving through contributions

Government support to sabhas has come down drastically

Carnatic singer Sikkil Gurucharan performing at Sri Rama Navami celebrations and music festival organised by the Sri Ramaseva Mandali in the Fort High School grounds in Bengaluru.— File Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

The music scene in Bengaluru be it the sabha concerts running for a year or under the Ramanavami banner, most sabhas feel that classical music in the city is thriving mainly through contributions from corporates, businessmen and individuals.

For the Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi, running for 68 years now, it is only the people taking across. H.B.P. Venkatesh, former secretary of the Samithi said: “We are grateful to the janatha of Seshadripuram, Kumarapark and Malleswaram for their generous donations, apart from industrialists, as Ramothsava for us is Janothsava.”

Although there is no government grant, the free-for-all music here has had the best of names as M.S., and Alathur Brothers coming in. “Those were times when M.D. Ramanathan asked us: ‘When is my date?’ and these are days when we wait endlessly for an artiste to confirm. No wonder we have scaled down our Ramothsava to 18 days from earlier 31 days,” he says.

While the philanthropists and music connoisseurs have been the backbone of the music scene in Bengaluru for several decades now, government support to sabhas has come down drastically in the recent years. Mushrooming of sabhas/ music academies has stretched the available resources among too many, leaving very meagre sum to individual sabhas.

“During one of our music seasons, we received Rs. 82,000 from the government for four programmes. However, procedures involved in securing the sanctioned sum were too many. In contrast, getting sponsors is easier,” M. Lakshmi Keshava of Sri Vani Kala Kendra in Basaveshwarnagar who has been conducting Ramanavami programmes.

BTM Cultural Academy, which has been conducting music programmes throughout the year for over two decades now, also depends on music lovers to conduct its programmes. A large chunk of money spent on the music “sapthaha” come from donations, and only a fraction from the State government. “We encourage good and upcoming artistes, who do not cost us much. This results in lesser expenditure on our music programmes,” said academy president K.N. Anantharamaiah.