Sowmya, Kuldeep M Pai bag excellence awards

Chennai: The Bharat Sangeet Utsav, a pan India music festival, kicked off on Friday. Renowned Carnatic singer, Sudha Raghunathan kick-started the festival with a concert on women empowerment titled ‘Sthree Shakthi’, along with popular Hindustani flautist Pandit Ronu Majumdar accompanied by 200 girl children from Dr Sudha Raja’s Sargam Choir.

Nandhini Prasad, President, Indian Co-operative Network for Women, presented the Bharat Sangeet excellence award to Carnatic music singer, Dr S Sowmya. Carnatic vocalist and composer, Kuldeep M Pai was presented with Bharat Samskriti award for spreading Indian culture and creating young superstars through social media.

Singer Sudha Raghunathan and actress and advocate Maalavika felicitated the awardees.  Organised by Carnatica and Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha will go on till November 9. It features a line up of star performers covering a wide variety of genres and themes.

The event is in support of Sukrtham Foundation, aiding the education of underprivileged girl children.

Carnatic icon Aruna Sairam will team up with Ambi and Bindu Subramaniam of the ThayirSaadam project, featuring the SaPa choir. The mridangam legend UmayalpuramSivaraman will appear in a new avatar as a presents ‘Jwaalaa’ with his team, including playback singer Haricharan Seshadri and Stephan Devassy (piano).

Carnatic greats Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Vijay Siva and S. Sowmya will perform traditional kutcheris. Young star Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna will present a vocal concert with his guru, maestro Karaikkudi Mani on the mridangam. Trichur Brothers will present a duo concert.