The Navarathri Music Festival happening at the Navarathri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram will begin this year with the carnatic concert of Ashwath Narayanan on September 21. Twenty six-year-old Ashwath, who started under the veteran musician, the late Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy, went on to learn under his wife Padma, when his guru passed away.
Carnatic musician Rama Varma, who has been instrumental in putting together the festival for the past many years, will perform at the event and so will his student Amrutha Venkatesh. Other regulars at the festival like the renowned Sanjay Subrahmanyan, the veterans Parassala Ponnammal and Prof K. Venkataramanan will also have kutcheris.
S. Varadarajan, who will perform as an accompanist with Sanjay, will have his own violin solo. Accompanying him will be veteran musician and Varma’s mentor Prof. T.V. Gopalakrishnan on the Mridangam.
The last two days of the fest will see vocal concerts by Tamarakkad Govindan Namboothiri and Vishnudev Namboothiri. The music concerts will begin every evening at 6 pm. The fest ends on September 29.
