Shastreeya Sangeet Sabha – A Musical Saga

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 group of friends woven together by the common thread of music would frequent the classical music programmes  elsewhere in the vicinity.  On such journeys  these pals deliberated on bringing artistes to their place itself so that  others, who are deprived of resource or time, can get an opportunity to listen to musicians of repute.  Thus  born the Shastreeya Sangeet Sabha at Karkala in 1992.

      The musical odyssey of this humble Sabha in this small town in over two decades, however, is illustrious. The objective has been to promote Indian classical music through concerts and workshops and thus bring about music awareness among the people. Though the initial plan was to arrange the performance of four artistes per year, in the first year itself around ten programmes of upcoming artistes of the vicinity as well as reputed artistes from other places were conducted.  Not a mean task in those days.

Promting Carnatic and Hindustani genres

      The Sabha conducts many Carnatic and Hindustani concerts.  The programmes, in fact, have come in attractive packages and the occasional festivals are sumptuous treat to the music lovers.

     The Sabha was conducting Udupi and Dakshina Kannada district level competitions in vocal, musical instruments and percussion instruments for the young singers in both Carnatic and Hindustani categories under Kala Sadhana. Though the competition received an overwhelming response in the initial years, it failed to draw competent singers in subsequent years. Hence the event was discontinued after ten years, now the programme is renamed the late Yogish Baliga Kala Sadhana, in memory of one of its founders wherein the Sabha provides platform for the young talents of the twin districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada and the neighbouring Kasaragod in Kerala to exhibit their talents.

Music fests are feasts

     Shastreeya Sangeet Rasaratri was an all-night music programme for some years As the crowd dwindled post midnight this too was discontinued.  Instead the organizers chose a Sunday in a year where music programmes were held from 9 am to 9pm.

  

     The three-day National Youth Music Festival conducted in 1999 featured artistes from all around the country. Dr Prakash Shenoy, general secretary of the Sabha, proudly admits that all the then upcoming artistes who performed in Karkala are well-known today. Artistes like Pravin Godkhindi, Salil Bhatt, Sandeep Chatterjee, D R Raju, Ranjani Hebbar, Chandan Kumar, Shaunak Abhisheki and Sumedha Desai regaled the discerning audience at the grand event.

     For four years Tataka Sangeeth Mahotsava was conducted from evening to midnight.   The oil lamps around the tank of Sri Venkataramana Temple lent a divine ambience to the event.  The week-long Shastreeya Sangeeta Saptaha marked the decennial year.

     “Funds have never been a problem”, says Dr Shenoy.  Though entry is free for most of the programmes,  the Sabha collected the necessary fund  through passes and tickets   for its large scale event in the fifth year.

Performance by artistes of repute

     Karkala has been a stop in the musical itinerary of well-known performers like Vidyabhushan,  Ullas Bapat, Ajith Kadkade, Ronu Mujumdar,  Vishwamohan Bhatt, Zakir Hussein, Rajkumar Bharati, Vittal Ramamurthy , M S Sheela, N Ramani, Sreenath Marathe, Mandolin Srinivas, Sudha Raghunathan, Parvin Sulthana, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shubha Mudgal, Jesudas, M S Gopalakrishnan, Nityashree Mahadevan, Nakod Brothers, Tarun Bhattacharya, Bombay Jayashree, Abhishek Raghuraman, Salil Bhat, Mysore Manjunath and Nagaraj and many more.  The Sabha, would have had a strong influence on Mahalakshmi Shenoy, an acclaimed Hindustani vocalist hailing from Karkala during her formative years.

     So far the Sabha has hosted the concerts of more than 500 artistes.  The fact that the performance of Sabha inspired the birth of a couple of similar associations elsewhere in the vicinity speaks volumes about the track record of the Sangeet Sabha.  But unlike other organisations, Shastreeya Sangeet Sabha does not restrict itself to any one discipline, instead gives equal footage to both Carnatic and Hindustani music.  The programmes draw music aficionados from far and wide.  The grand music programmes were an  oasis  in those days of  rare musical events.

Mission achieved

     Currently S. Nityananda Pai, is leading the association, as its president. “We were not aware of the enormity of classical music, but the programmes have driven us crazy about music”, once said one of the patrons Dr Adyantaya, reminisces Dr. Shenoy.  Though one of the objectives was to bring about music awareness, the Sabha at its silver jubilee year, has achieved much more than its objective.  It has developed a kind of music culture in this little town of historic significance.