The art of percussion in India with a special focus on the Mridangam and the relation of drums to music and dance of India is set to be the focus of a drum festival here.
Chennai-based Dr TK Murthy School of Music and Trust and the Delhi Tamil Sangam are jointly hosting a two day music festival in honor of T K Murthy, noted exponent of Mridangam.
"Dr T K Murthy is 90 years old and has now been playing for the past 80 years and will be performing at the festival himself along with other artists. He will shed light on the importance of percussions in dance and music," said Prof TKV Subramanian, the organiser of the festival as well as a disciple of Dr. Murthy.
For generations Murthy's family has been the court musicians of Padmanabhapuram Palace in Tiruvananthapuram. He made his debut at the age of eleven, at Coimbatore in a concert of Musiri Subramania Iyer with Karur Chinnaswami Iyer on violin and Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer on Mridangam. That was the start of an illustrious career in which he accompanied in more than 15,000 concerts so far. He has accompanied eminent artists over five generations, including Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bagavathar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, M. S. Subbulakshmi and others.
The two day festival beginning March 30, "Talavadyotsav 2013" will highlight percussion art of the country. Noted musicians such as Sivamani, Rafiuddin Sabri, Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam, J Vaidyanathan and others are expected to participate.
Prof Subramanian himself will be performing at the festival and will be giving a lecture on percussions in Indian music. "Rhythm comes naturally to man and through this festival we will shed light on the importance of percussion in music and dance. Indian drums have special quality as they are harmonic drums. Tabla and Mridangam can be tunes to an extent to the Tanpura and the others can only be beaten," said Prof Subramanian.
Lecture demonstrations by Saroja Vaidyanathan,Shovana Narayan, Singhajit Singh, Shashedar Acharya, Pandit Vidyadhar Vyas and Prof. TR Subramanyam are also the features of this festival.
