34th edition of Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival begins in Chennai

Bengaluru, (PTI) With the second edition of the exclusive, three-day instrumental music festival in Chennai, which began on Friday, the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, will kickstart the 34th edition of one of the long-running music festivals in the world.
    Started as a series of tribute concerts in 1992 by violin maestro Dr L Subramaniam, to honour the memory of his father and guru, violinist V Lakshminarayana, today the festival is a multi-city event, usually held every December and January.
    According to Subramaniam, during his father's time, very few people performed violin solos. But he wanted to create new approaches to music so that Indian music would be recognised globally as classical, rather than being seen as folk or ethnic music, Subramaniam told PTI.
    Violin maestro said his father achieved this by forming a Carnatic violin trio group with him and his brothers, L Shankar and L Vaidyanathan.
    "After he passed away all of a sudden in 1990, there was a big void. I was so shaken by it that I even wanted to stop playing the violin. But my then-wife Viji helped me pull myself together and we decided to start the festival in his memory," said Subramaniam, who married legendary Bollywood playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy in 1999.
    His wife Viji passed away in 1995.
    Incidentally, the very first edition of the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival was held in Chennai, added Subramaniam.
    "We started on January 11, 1992, in Music Academy. Fortunately, we had M S Subbulakshmi lighting the lamp with us and singing the prayer song. That was a great, great moment for us," recalled Subramaniam.
    Initially, the festival was limited to Chennai, said Subramaniam. "But when it became successful, people asked me, 'why don't you do it in other cities too?' That's how we ended up taking the festival all over India. Over the years, we have had musical greats, like Bismillah Khan, Bhimsen Joshi and M Balamuralikrishna, performing at the festival," added the violinist.
    The instrumental Chennai festival, said Subramaniam, was started to create more opportunities for instrumentalists.
    "Even the brilliant instrumentalists do not get many opportunities. Some of my friends said, 'why don't you do an instrumental festival?' So, we finally started it last year," Subramaniam told PTI.
    In just a year, said the violin maestro, they were able to scale the festival.
    "This year, we are doing it for three days. It has some brilliant musicians, like Amjad Ali Khan and Mandolin Srinivas, performing," said Subramaniam.
    Krishnamurthy, who is the director of Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, said the Chennai festival also showcases young musicians.
    "On day two, we have a concert by the SAPA Ensemble. These are musicians who are being trained at Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts. We also have three young and up-and-coming musicians performing for us," said Krisnamurthy.
    Krishnamurthy also said the festival tries to bring together the best of the world so that the audience can have a truly global experience.
    "That's why we call it a global festival, so that it's a global platform, not only of the popular kind of music, but the kind of music and instruments with which people are struggling to make an identity for themselves in the world," added Krishnamurthy.
    After Chennai, the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival 2024-25 will travel to Bengaluru on January 4, Pune on January 10, and Mumbai on January 11.
    The Lakshminarayana International Award 2024 will be awarded to Bharatanatyam legend Padma Subrahmanyam.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)