Kerala Tourism's monsoon music fest boasts a promising lineup

Child prodigies, classical maestros and renowned names such as Hariharan and Bombay Jayashri will be performing at the festival
Kerala Tourism's monsoon music fest boasts a promising lineup
Kerala Tourism's monsoon music fest boasts a promising lineup
Written by:

Five days and many musicians. The Nishagandhi Monsoon Music Festival in Thiruvananthapuram has a fantastic lineup.

Organised by the Department of Kerala Tourism, someone who prepared the brochure has made a poetic note:

The pitter patter of raindrops. 
The distant rumble of thunder. 
The ensemble of frogs and crickets. 
Monsoon has its own symphony of sorts

The fest begins with child prodigies, goes on to popular names – Hariharan and Bombay Jayashree among them – and ends with classical maestros.

On the day it begins – July 15 – is a performance by The Superkids Band, an ensemble of drums, piano and flute. Among them is Steven, one of the youngest to complete the grade 8 drums exam from the Trinity College of London, and nephew of noted pianist Stephen Devassy.

There are also two other super kids – Lydian Nadhaswaram, recognized by TEDxGateway as the youngest piano prodigy in India, and Amritha Varshini, who plays the piano, the flute and is also a versatile singer.

The festival organisers remembered to give space to accomplished women artistes. Apart from renowned musician Bombay Jayashri, there is MS Lavanya, who has an entry in the Limca Book of Records for being the only woman saxophonist in India. There is also the tablist Rimpa Siva, on whom there is a French documentary called the Princess of Tabla.

Among the men, there are flutists Mrittunjoy Mukherjee and BV Balasai, sitarist B Sivaramakrishna Rao and violinist BV Raghavendra Rao. The second last day of the fest will also see ‘Moods of the Bamboo’,  a classical fusion of music with K Sai Giridhar on the mridangam, Anoop Nair on the keyboard and Venaktesh DC on the percussion.

Hariharan known as the Ghazal king will perform on the final day – July 19. Before his show, there will be a mizhavu melam (percussion) by the alumni of the Kerala Kalamandalam.

The music fest will also see some Carnatic performances – young Sooraj V Lal will sing on the 16th, Arjun B Krishna on the 17th, and Vinayak V Gopal will play the nadaswaram on the 18th.

Here's the schedule:

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com