News & Notes

Remembering Fiddle Govindaraja Pillai

Chennai Fine Arts celebrated the 105th birth anniversary of renowned violin maestro Mayavaram Govindaraja Pillai on Friday, 12th May at Srinivasa Sastri hall in Luz. Earlier CFA had also celebrated his birth centenary in the year 2012, in which a short documentary on him was presented.

On the occasion yesterday, three students learning at the CFA Academy were presented the musical instrument Nagasvaram. These students are trained by Vidwan Kundrathur T. Venkatesan who is a faculty of CFA. The instruments were sponsored by the Mayavaram ‘Fiddle’ Govindaraja Pillai Trust founded by Shri. Shanmughanathan, son in-law of Govindaraja Pillai. Vidwan Seshampatti Sivalingam presided over the function and presented the instruments. This initiative is to encourage the students to learn sincerely and achieve big. The function was followed by the violin duet concert of Dr M Lalitha and M Nandini. Beginning with Abhogi varnam in four speeds, the duo presented sarasiruhasana in Nattai (Puliyur Duraiswamy Iyer), Siddhiswaraya in Neelambari (Muthuswami Deekshitar), Paraloka in Mandhari and Nannu kanna thalli in Sindhu Kannada besides the main piece Etavunara in Kalyani (all three by Tyagaraja). KH Vineeth, Mrdangam and S Sunil Kumar, Kanjira were the accompanists. The concert which lasted two hours witnessed a full house audience.

(Left to right in the photo: S Nithyasree - Secretary, Chennai Fine Arts, PN Muralidharan - Founder, Chennai Fine Arts, Kundrathur T Venkatesan - Nagasvaram Faculty, Chennai Fine Arts, D Rajeswaran - student, S Kishore - student, vidwan Seshampatti Sivalingam, Shri. Shanmuganathan - Founder Mayavaram 'Fiddle' Govindaraja Pillai Trust, Mohana krishnan - student).
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