Can the December Chennai Music Fest Sustain its Current size

By N. Krishnamurthy

Every year, the December Chennai Music Festival (Marghazi season) starts as early as November and ends in January. The peak period of the festival is from 15 December to 3 January. I was in Chennai briefly in December 2023 and attended the festival after a gap of four years. Hence, I was eager to experience about any innovations that were brought about in my absence from the festival . One of the hot topics of discussion (post-covid) among Carnatic music enthusiasts is the dwindling response to concerts in the Margazhi season.

The Current Size of the Festival

The Marghazi season is largely about Carnatic music, and dance performances in some sabhas. Dance performances are plenty post 3 January and that needs a separate analysis. My article only focuses on the music aspect of the Marghazi season.

Typically, there are vocal concerts and some instrumental (mainly violin, veena, and flute) performances. Is this the largest music festival in the world? If you go by the number of attendees, perhaps the largest is Donauinselfest in Vienna, Austria, which is attended by more than three million people over three days. No official statistics are available on the number of attendees of the Marghazi season, but it can’t be anywhere close to the Austrian numbers. However, let us see the scale of the just concluded Marghazi season (2023–24) basis other parameters.

The data was sourced from Marghazi Guide (a 248-page brochure) compiled by Shreya Nagarajan Singh Arts Development Consultancy for the aforementioned season. The Marghazi season’s duration was more than 60 days. Though the peak was from 16 December 2023 to 1 January 2024, there were over 1200 concerts, and that translated to about 70 concerts a day.

The total estimated number of concerts from 1 December 2023 to 31 January 2024 were about 2200. It is difficult to estimate the number of attendees. Auditoriums where the concerts are held vary in capacity from 50 to 1700: TTK auditorium in The Music Academy is currently the largest.

The number of performing artists could not be estimated. Considering the number of concerts, there must be over 200 artists from across the country and even from the US and Singapore. How could one compare these numbers with the statistics of past years? I looked at a couple of analyses presented in Sruti for the 1994 and 2004 Margazhi seasons, along with the figures I compiled for 2023–24 season.

Sources: Figures for 1994 and 2003 are from previously published articles in Sruti. Figures for 2023 (1 December to 31 January) is from Margazhi Guide by Shreya Nagarajan Singh Arts Development Consultancy. The numbers include dance concerts, though most are Carnatic music concerts.

Interestingly, though there is a reduction in the number of sabhas organising Margazhi concerts, the total number of concerts has only increased. Many organisations that conducted concerts in 2004 have either closed down or stopped organisation of Margazhi concerts. I spoke to some of them. For example, Kalarasana said that they have not conducted concerts after the pandemic. Others said that their organisations struggled for survival and could not hold concerts because of a substantial drop in audience interest. One of the reasons cited for this is the Covid interruption in 2020–21.

I asked the Secretary of a struggling sabha what could possibly be done to revive interest. She said, “Only God can help”. In the last few years, many new organisers have also come up. I attended a few concerts in the 2023–24 Margazhi season. Apart from the innate desire to enjoy good music, I always try to attend concerts by emerging artists.

Dwindling Audience Numbers

Most sabhas have a problem with audience strength. Sometimes, there are more people on stage than in the audience. “This year, we have almost 20% less audience than last year”, is what the canteen supervisor of one of the leading sabhas told me. If the canteen had 20% less turnout, concerts might have had a more significant reduction because many visited only the canteens. In the  afternoon slot, I was at a concert by a young vocalist at Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. I had read good reviews about this young vocalist. Blessed with a melodious voice, she gave an impressive performance to about ten audience members. Later, I met her father and asked him how would she motivate herself after such a low turnout. He said, “We are used to it”; it was his one-line response. The tone was of resignation. The violinist who accompanies her comes from Delhi every year for the season. That noon, since it was 1 January, there was an elaborate lunch in the canteen priced at INR 900. There was a long queue. And in the concert, I saw just about ten people—some had dozed off after lunch!.

I attended two concerts at The Music Academy: one ticketed and another in the non-ticketed slot. The artists were Ananya Ashok and Amrutha Venkatesh. Ananya is an experienced artist and trains under the maestro T.N. Seshagopalan. She has performed in India, the US, and many other countries. Thanks to a less-than-half-full TTK hall at the Academy, I could sit in the first row (the concert was not ticketed). Amrutha is a vocalist who has made rapid strides in the last few years. A student of Prince Rama Varma, she can read and write Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, the three main languages in which there are compositions. For her concert (ticketed), I was in the balcony seat at the Academy — only 30% full. The hall downstairs was also not occupied to its full capacity.

Some concerts that attracted a larger audience were Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Ranjani-Gayatri, Ramakrishnan Murthy, Trichur Brothers, and Abhishek Raghuram. There were also excellent artists who saw a thin audience— Nisha Rajagopalan and Sumithra Vasudev, amongst others.

A concert at Dakshinamurthy Auditorium that staged d Sikkil Gurcharan, Anil Srinivasan, and Sumesh Narayanan had a packed hall, and the audience was not all grey-haired! These were young artists who wished to experiment, and also adept at traditional Carnatic music formats. For example, Sumesh has also been performing with his IndoFusion music band ‘Sparsh Quartet’. From the moment we entered the auditorium, it was magical. The concert’s theme was ‘Krishnam’. All elements that made music a blissful experience came together in utmost harmony.

A Carnatic Quartet

The quartet team brought together the violin, nagaswaram, mridangam and the tavil and uniquely explored their range and melody. Generally, nagaswaram and violin are played in very different contexts : one at weddings and temple festivals, and the other in closed door venues. Yet, they gelled seamlessly in the concert by artists Shreya Devnath (violin), Mylai Karthikeyan (nagasawaram), Praveen Sparsh (mridangam), and Adyar Silambarasan (tavil). Their concert was held in a beautiful garden setting and the venue was filled to its capacity.

These two concert experiences showed that it is possible to draw larger audiences, provided artists cater to a wider range of age groups, without compromising on tradition.

In pure-play traditional concerts, the average age tends to be 60 years or more, and these concerts have a smaller rasika segment that is genuinely interested. The people who come often spend more time in canteens than inside the hall. “The canteens are always full, but bringing the crowds inside the music hall is a challenge”, says K. Harishankar of Narada Gana Sabha.

Further, many elders are still weary to be in crowded auditoriums post-Covid. If concerts are made more appealing to a wider age segment of rasikas, including the youngsters, audience numbers might increase. Then, there are other aspects: the ambience, stage, background, lighting, and acoustics. All these contribute to the overall experience. Take the example of MadRasana, founded in 2016 by Mahesh Venkateswaran, former Executive Vice President at Cognizant. This is now his full-time passion, moving from ‘delivering’ software applications globally to ‘delivering’ great Indian classical music. Their website says: “Our format of shows and presentations are usually not the usual ones you will experience. We give a lot of importance to overall production aesthetics, and the focus will be on the art form. Our focus on audio has won us a lot of praise from the rasikas and the media.” During the Marghazi season (2023–24), MadRasana used Generative AI generated posters of artists on Instagram and promoted the lineup of artists before the concerts. This created considerable interest among the young. MadRasana used dynamic LED screens in the backdrop of the stage and paid greater attention to acoustics that resulted in a holistic experience, and most of the concerts were sold out. This year MadRasana has planned mikeless concerts during the season.

Future of the Margazhi Season

Subsequently, I think that further consolidation in the number of venues and concerts is bound to happen. Attention is needed on the infrastructure of most venues. Most importantly, concerts need to be refashioned to appeal to a wider audience and age group. Innovation is possible in style as done by the Trichur Brothers. There are also interesting team combinations possible. A better distribution and a mélange of concerts throughout December might help attract more rasikas.

Efforts must be taken by artists and organisers to consciously appeal to younger audiences without compromising on the essential elements and structure of a Carnatic music concert. There is also a need for multifarious sponsorship so that more money flows into the sabhas for expenditures on ambience, acoustics, seating, and promotion. Sponsors support only registered sabhas. Therefore, the smaller sabhas may not survive. Let us hope that the Marghazi season grows in its appeal and thousands gather to enjoy this unique celebration of Carnatic music. It could happen if steps are taken beyond the popularisation of ‘best dosas’ in the canteens. The focus should shift back to music.

(The author is the Founder and Chairman of a Technology company and loves attending Carnatic music concerts and writes about travel and music)