As the annual December Season unfolds now, back after the two-year silence due to the pandemic many arts bodies, local and from abroad, host events in the city.
SciArtsRUs is presenting ‘Marghazhi Matram’ in association with Live4You in Chennai and elsewhere. The uniqueness of this event is that artists with disabilities are honoured and the concerts are by such artistes.
The opening event at Dakshinamurthi Hall, P S School campus, Mylapore on December 2 ( concerts are on here till Dec. 4 and also on Dec.10) was warm, endearing and uplifting.
The guests at the opening event were vidwan M. Chandrasekaran and his daughter Bharathi Chandrasekaran. arts promoter V V Sundaram, writer and theatreperson Gowri Ramnarayan, dancer Roja Kannan and inspirational speaker and differently abled athlete, Justin Vijay Jesudas.
An inclusive Carnatic choir of 100 kids and young adults performed with live instruments; it was conducted by Sudha Raja of Sargam Choir and many people said they loved the music and the enthusiasm of the choir members.
At the ‘recognition’ ceremony to honour artistes – visually impaired violinist T.K. Padmanabhan, visually impaired vocalist Gayatri Sankaran and percussionist, Erode Nagaraj – were decorated.
Young keyboardist Aditya Venkatesh was recognised ‘for being an inspiration to neuro diverse artistes’. Visually impaired artistes Jyothikalai and Priyamvadhana received the Vasantha Ramachander Memorial Scholarships.
The evening’s two other presentations were – the “Unheard Music” featuring 20 children from CSI School for the Deaf, San Thome, Chennai in a percussion performance conducted and orchestrated by vidwan Suresh Vaidyanathan.
And an inclusive dance performance led by dancer and teacher Roja Kannan, featuring folk dancers from Kalai Koothan School of Performing Arts, Bharatanatyam by Ponni, a transgender artiste and a karagattam performance by visually-impaired dancer Muniyaswamy.
The subsequent concerts in Chennai ( Nanganallur is the second venue in the city) will feature several inclusive and diverse presentations featuring artistes with varying disabilities – either as main artistes accompanied by a team of abled and disabled or as supporting artistes for the main artistes who are able.
The Founder of SciArtsRUs is Dr. Ranjini Kaushik, whose brainchild is Marghazhi Matram.
For detailed information and schedule, see https://www.facebook.com/SciArtsRUs/
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