Tuesday, October 13, 2009
IW Online
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Auckland music lovers witnessed a great concert by musical maestro Padma Vibhushan, Sangeetha Virinchi Dr Mangalampalli Bala Muralikrishna Friday, October 2 at the Dorothy Winstone Centre.
A standing ovation given by the music lovers on the arrival of musical genius on to the stage tells us the respect he attained in the hearts of Indian art lovers. The evening’s concert was one of its kind and around 700 music lovers attended the concert with a curiosity how this 79-year-old Sangeetha Kalanidhi was going to mesmerise the crowd.
That’s exactly what happened: “It was superb. Spellbinding. Great at this age.” Those were the response by most music lovers.
An artist with the experience of more than 23000 concerts worldwide knows the exact technique how to impress the audience. The variation in ragas and compositions gave a great feel about the concert.
He started the concert with his own composition Sri Sakala Ganadhipa in raga Arabhi followed by Akhilandeswari, Kaumari Gouri and Sundari nee divya roopamu (main item of the evening) compositions of musical trinity Syama Sastry, Muthuswamy Deekshithar and Sri Tyagaraja.
In the second half, he presented few keerthanas of Saint Purandara Dasa, Ramadas, Maharaja Swathi Thirunal, Narayana Theertha, and his own classic Thillana in ragam Kadanakutoohalam.
Many Indian organisations such as New Zealand Telugu Association, Auckland Indian Association, Bharatiya Samaj Charitable Trust, Academy of Fine Arts, Auckland Malayalee Samajam, Aiswarya Entertainments Ltd came forward to felicitate the artist of the evening.
The main organiser of the event, Sangeetha Bharathi music school conferred the title “Sangeetha Virinchi” on Dr Bala Muralikrishna during the concert and released a souvenir on behalf of Auckland music lovers. The co-organiser, Rasikas New Zealand, presented Life Time Achievement award to Dr Bala Muralikrishna.
He was aptly supported by Peravali Jayabhaskar on the mridangam and Ammula Satyavathi on the violin. Kumari Vishnu Priya Mallela also supported him (vocal) for few songs.
The principal of Sangeetha Bharathi Music School, Padma Govardhan, is a disciple of Dr Bala Muralikrishna and Aiswarya Entertainments Ltd honoured Mrs Govardhan with a “Sincere Teacher” award for her services to music in Auckland for the past 11 years.
It was presented by Dr Bala Muralikrishna - making it a memorable occasion for Mrs Govardhan.
Dr Bala Muralikrishna also performed in Wellington on Saturday October 3, which was organised by New Zealand Indian Fine Arts Society.
On Sunday October 4, Aiswarya Entertainments Ltd hosted a dance and music workshop by Dr Saraswathi (dance) and Dr Bala Muralikrishna (music) - attended by around 150 students. The dance workshop was co-ordinated by Selvi Kumar of Narthanalayam, Indian dances.