Kannada Community Gathers For a Musical Evening
About 250 Kannadigas met Sunday, September 22, at the Hindu Temple in Riverdale, Georgia, for an enthralling music concert organized by Atlanta?s Nrupatunga Kannada Koota.
The performers were Ratnamala Prakash, Malathi Sharma, Y.K. Muddukrishna and Thimmaraju, accompanied by Devambu on the tabla, Vijay on the harmonium and Pulakeshi on the keyboard.
Sugama Sangeeta is a vital part of Karnataka?s pop culture, and Ratnamala Prakash and Malathi Sharma are perhaps the best-known practitioners of that genre.
Traditionally, Sugama Sangeeta focuses as much on the lyric as on melody, and the group that performed Sunday chose some of the best-loved songs in Kannada literature. There were songs for many moods ? from Kuvempu?s contemplative O Nanna Chetana to B.R. Lakshmana Rao?s humorous Baare Rajakumari and G.P. Rajaratnam?s ever-popular Brahma Ninge Jodisteeni . The performers cheerfully took requests, and the audience went wild with Thimmaraju?s inspired rendition of Kailasam?s Kolike Ranga.
Dr. H.N. Ramaswamy, President of the Kannada Koota, said the association would soon bring out another edition of Chiguru, its magazine, to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Kannada Koota.
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