Karnataka artistes to perform at Bhatkhande Jayanti celebrations

On September 21, Lucknow would witness a unique folk performance. A troupe from Karnataka would be in town to showcase Yakshagana—a folk art of Karnataka.

The performance would be held as part of Bhatkhande Jayanti celebrations organized by Bhatkhande Music Institute from September 19 to 21 at Sant Gadge auditorium, Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Addressing a press conference ahead of the event, Shruti Sadolikar Katkar, vice chancellor of the deemed university said, “The tradition of Yakshagana is 400 years old. The performers of the art wear exotic attires. There is dance, music and dialogue that make the art form.”

“Yakshgana was initially led by temples as people would get the performances organised in their homes after the fulfillment of their prayers. Shivanad Hegde is a leading performer of the art form whose family has been engaged in the performance of Yakshagana for 80 years,” added the VC.

But that’s not all to the Bhatkhande Jayanti celebrations. The music university would felicitate sitar maestro Pt Arvind Parikh with ‘guru sammaan’ on September 19. This would be followed by a performance by his disciple Ramprapanna Bhattacharya from Hydrabad.

“Pt Arvind Parikh is a disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan and has trained a large number of people in the genre. He has been organising high level music conferences for many years,” said Shruti S Katkar.

There would be a kathak performance directed by Shashi Sankhala from Jaipur and classical music by Ajay Pohankar from Mumbai.

On September 20, there would be Sitar rendition by Anupama Bhagvat from Bangaluru and table rendition by Pt Arvind Kumar Azad from Pune. Students of Bhatkhande would also give away performances during the three day event. The performances on all the three days would begin at 6pm and would be open for all music lovers. Governor Ram Naik would be the chief guest for the opening day celebrations.