“Appreciation could make a day — even change a life,” wrote Margaret Cousins. Each award is a milestone because it spurs you to do higher. Extra so, if it’s a nationwide award given by an apex physique within the area of performing arts just like the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA). From the Nineteen Fifties, the SNA has been working in the direction of the preservation and promotion of the huge intangible heritage of India’s numerous tradition expressed in types of music, dance and drama.
Since 1952, when the awards started to be conferred, the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) yearly chooses artistes for the Akademi Ratna or Fellowship, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar and the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (named after the late shehnai maestro).
The Fellowship of the Akademi is a uncommon honour. Veteran artistes upon whom will probably be conferred for 2022-23 are Vinayak Khedekar (famend folklorist from Goa, who has made vital contributions to the preservation and promotion of Goa’s wealthy heritage); R. Visweswaran (Bengaluru-based Carnatic veena virtuoso and musicologist); Sunayana Hazarilal (Kathak exponent and guru); Raja & Radha Reddy (Delhi-based famend Kuchipudi duo); Dulal Roy (actor, director, playwright and useful resource particular person) and Daya Prakash Sinha (stalwart playwright and humanities administrator).
From India’s giant and numerous tradition arc, 92 artists had been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the years 2022 and 2023, from the fields of music, dance, theatre, conventional folks, tribal music, dance, theatre, puppetry and total contribution/scholarship within the performing arts.
The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a handbag cash of three lakh rupees, whereas the Akademi Award carries a handbag cash of 1 lakh, in addition to a tamrapatra and angavastram. The Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships and Puraskars had been conferred by the President of India Droupadi Murmu, in a particular investiture ceremony on March 6, 2024 at Vigyan Bhawan, Delhi.
The Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar was instituted as an annual award in 2006. Eighty younger artists have been chosen to obtain this award for the years 2022 and 2023. This carries a handbag cash of 25,000 rupees, a tamrapatra and angavastram. These awards shall be conferred by the chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi at a particular ceremony.
Because the checklist for all of the awards is lengthy, the main focus right here is on the awardees within the genres of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam, alongwith just a few awardees from completely different genres who belong to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
SNA Puraskar (Award) 2022
Maharajapuram Ramachandran is a senior Carnatic vocalist, who served as college at Annamalai College, Chidambaram, and belongs to the Maharajapuram musical legacy.
Manda Sudharani — Carnatic vocalist recognized for her experience in presenting advanced pallavis and dwitala avadhanam (rendering two completely different talas concurrently with each palms).
Vainika Jayanthi Kumaresh – sixth era musician within the illustrious Lalgudi household, a passionate propagator and international ambassador of the Saraswati Veena.
Vinukonda Subrahmanyam – distinguished thavil artiste on the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam.
Manjula Ramaswamy – Bharatanatyam artiste hailing from Thanjavur, daughter and disciple of Bharatanatyam exponent V.S. Ramamoorthy, and director of Shri Ram Nataka Niketan in Hyderabad.
A. Susairaj – Puducherry-based famend director and actor.
Prameela Gurumurthy – a classical vocalist and musicologist. Additionally educated in Hindustani music, she is Harikatha exponent, author and humanities administrator. She served as chairperson of the College of High-quality and Performing Arts on the College of Madras and later because the Vice-Chancellor of the Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Music and High-quality Arts College, Chennai.
SNA Puraskar 2023
Bombay Jayashri Ramnath – Carnatic vocalist and versatile musician with a worldwide attain.
Shankar Sastry – Karnataka-based Carnatic vocalist and creator of many books on Carnatic music and compositions with notations.
Neyveli R. Narayanan — a mridangam artiste hailing from the illustrious Thanjavur College of Mridangam.
H.Okay. Venkataram — a senior Carnatic violinist, he’s the son and disciple of Vidwan H.V. Krishnamurthy. He has carried out extensively each solo and as an accompanist and took part in jugalbandi live shows with stalwarts of Hindustani music.
Urmila Sathyanarayanan — a famend Bharatanatyam exponent, instructor and choreographer. After her initiation in Bharatanatyam at Saraswathi Gana Nilayam in Chennai, she educated with eminent natyacharyas Okay.N. Dandayudhapani Pillai and Okay.J. Sarasa. She is the creative director of Natya Sankalpaa.
Nirupama Rajendra and T.D. Rajendra — the Bengaluru-based in style dancing duo bag the award for Artistic and Experimental dance. Educated in Kathak, Bharatanatyam, and different kinds, the founders of Abhinava Dance Firm, excel as dancers, choreographers, producers, and administrators.
Okay. Palanivel — a grasp practitioner of the standard Indian martial artwork type of Silambam, he has devoted himself to preserving and selling it by passing on his experience to the youthful era. Primarily based in Puducherry, he learnt Silambam from Grasp Rajaram.
SNA’s Yuva Puraskar 2022-23
The recipients of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (age restrict 40 years) for 2022:
Okay. Gayatri: Carnatic vocalist with a penchant for laya intricacies, she is the senior disciple of vidushi Suguna Purushothaman.
Sweta Prasad: Carnatic vocalist presently coaching beneath vidushi Pantula Rama, additionally sings for classical dance and composes music for dance-dramas.
S.V. Sahana: A veena artiste, she is a disciple of vidwan M.J. Srinivasa Iyengar, and maestros T.N. Seshagopalan and T.V. Gopalakrishnan. She holds a doctorate in music from the College of Mysore.
Mandakranta Roy: The Tripura-based dancer is a scholar of Prof. C.V. Chandrasekar.
Anuthama Murali: A Carnatic violinist, she had her preliminary music coaching in Mumbai, and is presently being educated by vidushi A. Kanyakumari and vidwan N. Vijay Siva.
B. Ananthakrishnan: A well known violinist.
SNA’s Yuva Puraskar 2023
S.R. Vinay Sharva — Karnataka-based Carnatic vocalist, educated by his mom N. Jayashree, Bangalore S. Shankar, and vidwan Nedunuri Krishnamurthy.
Ramakrishna Murthy — in style Carnatic vocalist, disciple of Delhi P. Sunderrajan, and now presently coaching with vidwan R.Okay. Shriramkumar.
Akshay Anantapadmanabhan – A well known mridangam artiste.
Apoorva Jayaraman — Bharatanatyam dance and a disciple of Priyadarsini Govind.
M. Prakash — Puducherry-based folks dancer.
Venkateshwaran Kuppuswamy — receives the award for Music for Dance. A Delhi-based Carnatic musician, he receives the award for Music for Dance.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that a lot of the Yuva Puraskar awardees have chosen to be full-time performing artistes and lots of of them are already being featured by sabhas within the night slots for seniors.
The senior awardees described the second as certainly one of pleasure and pleasure mixed with a way of gratitude to their mother and father, gurus, co-artistes, college students and rasikas .