A Kanyakumari as the first woman violinist recipient of Sangita Kalanidhi Award
Miscellaneous
India
The Madras Music Academy on 24 July 2016 announced that it has chosen versatile violinist A. Kanyakumari for its coveted Sangita Kalanidhi Award for the year 2016.
Kanyakumari was unanimously named for the award by the Executive Committee of the Academy.
The violinist is the first woman violinist to get the award in the history of the Music Academy. She will preside over the 90th annual conference of the Academy to be held between 15 December 2016 and 1 January 2017.
The award will be conferred on Kanyakumari at the Sadas on 1 January 2017.
The Sangita Kala Acharya Awards will go to Rudrapatnam brothers, R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan and K. Venkataramanan.
TTK awards will be conferred on vocalist Nirmala Sundararajan and Thevaram singer M. Kodilingam.
Musicologist Award will go to Rama Kausalya and Pappa Venkatramaiah Award will go to violinist Sikkil Baskaran.
The Nataya Kala Acharaya Award will be conferred on Malavika Sarukkai on 3 January 2017.
Who is A Kanyakumari?
• Avasarala Kanyakumari is a violinist from South India who specializes in Carnatic music.
• She is a native of Vijayanagaram, Andhra Pradesh.
• She has been living in Chennai for more than 40 years.
• She had her initial training under Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao.
• She created seven ragas under the title Saptadri, seven names of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati.
About Sangita Kalanidhi
• Sangita Kalanidhi is the title awarded yearly to an expert Carnatic Musician by the Madras Music Academy.
• This honour is considered one of the highest awards in Carnatic music.
• In 2015, vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan was awarded with the title.
