The Academy of Music, one of Bengaluru’s premier cultural institutions, celebrates 64 years of service to Indian classical music and the fine arts. To commemorate this occasion, it unveils a five-day celebration of carnatic and hindustani music — the Sri KK Murthy Memorial Music Festival & Academy of Music Chowdiah Award 2025 — at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall.
The festival features performances by renowned Indian classical musicians such as Kaushiki Chakraborty, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma and L Subramanian, which will be preceded by complimentary Lobby Concerts by young talents. Come Friday, renowned harikatha artiste Visakha Hari takes to the stage to present compositions based on the music trinity of Indian classical music and we speak to her to get a glimpse of her performance at the festival.
“Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri are considered the trinity of carnatic music and all three are equally important for their profound and lasting contributions to South Indian classical music. This year marks the 250th birthday anniversary of Muthuswami Dikshitar, who has been the foundational inspiration behind the entire shastriya sampradaya as we know it today, so I’ll be focusing more on him,” Visakha begins.
To present factual and rich narratives of the musicians’ life and work, Vishaka has taken references from biographies and sourced materials from the late composers’ family members. The performance promises unknown and rare facts on the trinity accompanied by interesting anecdotes which connect to the composition.
“I have sourced the earliest known biography of the saintcomposer Tyagaraja, which was written by his disciple Balajapeta Venkataramana Bhagavathar. For Muthuswami Dikshitar, composer and musician Mysore Vasudevachar wrote a ragamalika (a composition in multiple ragas) that details important events and incidents in the life of the composer. Lastly, Shyama Shastri’s own grandson became an important source to provide good, authentic material on his life and compositions,” she elucidates.
She concludes our little enlightening chat by explaining why people who come for harikatha are either music lovers, katha lovers, historians wanting to do research on our great saints or those who seek spirituality in performing arts.
“Harikatha is not just an art form for entertainment, but it’s also elevating because they are not just artistes who perform for anything and everything. They have been conversing with God and all their compositions are in conversation with the gods and goddesses. These kathas have history, philosophy, navarasas and more. It is not just presented from one angle, it offers several takeaways,” she tells us.
₹150. November 7, 6 pm. At Vyalikaval.
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