By M.L. Krishnaswami
The JSS Sangeetha Sabha Trust started a few years ago under the benign guidance and patronage of the Swamiji has been doing very good work in organising a week-long music festival every year (like the famous Madras Music Academy) where top rank musicians of the land will present their talents and also in bestowing an honour on the festival Chairman. Likewise, the Mutt organises music programmes every full-moon night in the sprawling arena of the Mutt where the enthusiastic listeners have to sit around a water pond on the four triangular shaped steps sloping towards the pond and enjoy the music programme. It creates a divine atmosphere in the starry moonlit atmosphere. The contribution of the JSS Mutt in promoting music among the citizens of Mysuru is thus immense. The present article however relates to a day-long music festival organised by the Sabha on Feb. 26 at the mini-hall of the College in Saraswathipuram —eight programmes — each an hour-long are arranged, four in the morning and four in the evening. The artistes are all drawn from the pool of local talent giving them a necessary boost in their musical voyage. The programme is meticulously organised like the one comparable to the famous Madras Music Academy. Annually, eight such events are planned for a day and split into four in the morning and four in the evening with a good lunch thrown up after the morning event. The itinerary of the music programme related to the compositions of the illustrious trinity of Karnatak music namely Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Shyama Sastry, all ever-shining stars in the Musical Galaxy and all the eight main artistes of the event struck to this dictum. As I have to dwell on eight programmes in this event, I will restrict myself to the main items in each.
