Youth brigade to ring in Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi’s Ramanavami music festival this year

This year, the Ramanavami music festival by the Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi, has a special focus on young artistes 

After its year-long platinum jubilee celebrations, the Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi’s 76th Ramanavami music festival is all set to usher in a new chapter. This time round, the Samithi has roped in a galaxy of youth performers for its Yuva Sangeethothsava from April 17 to May 10.

To be held in the open at Seshadripuram College, the event will witness more than two dozen performances. “Our committee decided to veer away from the usual senior and junior concerts and opened up the evenings entirely to fresher, younger voices on the classical Ramothsava platform,” says Sri Ramakrishnan, secretary, Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samithi. “The classical world today has youngsters brimming with talent, deserving the main slot. This segment helps us showcase their prodigious expertise.”

The late V Tarakaram, a senior advocate who served as the secretary of the Seshadripuram Samithi for nearly 15 years until 2018, writes in the history of the Samithi that while south Bengaluru already had the Ramaseva Mandali helmed by SVN Rao from the late 1930s, delighting music connoisseurs in Chamarajpet, CD Gopala Iyengar (of the erstwhile stationers, Gopalan & Co) from Seshadripuram with public-spirited citizens wanted to meet the need for Ramanavami music concerts in North-West Bengaluru.

Iyengar with support from G Narasimhamurthy (of Kalyan Cafe), Narasinga Rao Mane, a businessman, Sripadachar, a teacher at the Arya Vaidya Shala and V Krishnamurthi, a lawyer, visited people and sourced funds to begin the Seshadripuram Samithi. 

Justice E S Venkataramaiah, a Chief Justice of India, was also associated with the Samithi. “From the year 1948, star musicians in classical music have graced the Samithi which functioned with funds generated from patrons,” Ramakrishnan says.

There will be 25 performances this year, opening with a nadaswara recital by Mylai Karthikeyan. “We have consciously included both individual achievers chasing their passion such as Rahul Vellal, Suryagayatri, Dhanya Dinesh Rudrapatna and Rithvik Raja, as well as youngsters taking forward their family legacy.”

The musical heirs include Ramani Shankar, son of Carnatic vocalist Bangalore S Shankar; Omkarnath Havaldar, son of Hindustani maestro Nagaraj Rao Havaldar; Medha Vidyabhushana, daughter of Carnatic vocalist Vidyabhushana; violinists Sumanth and Malavi Manjunath, children of Mysore Manjunath; Kruthi Vittal, wife of violinist Vittal Rangan; Lavanya Krishnamurthy, daughter of violinist TS Krishnamurthy, violinist G Pranavi, daughter of percussionist Guruprasanna; Varijashree Venugopal daughter of flautist Venugopal; Sindhu R, daughter of ghata vidwan Raghavendra Prakash; Medha Manjunath wife of percussionist Vinodh Shyam; JK Yoga Kirtana daughter of veena vidushi Yoga Vandana; Ranjani Vasuki, daughter of Nagavalli Nagaraj; and flautists Heramba and Hemantha, children of mridangist Ambale Satyaprasad.