Courtesy: NewIndPress

Mangalore, Jan 8: On January 4 three artistes who enjoy celebrity status, usually reserved for reigning stars from the tinsel world, performed simultaneously at three different places in Dakshina Kannada district.

In their own styles, the concerts of Padmabhushan K J Yesudas at Alva’s Virasat in Moodbidri, Kalaimani awardee Kadri Gopalnath at Karavali Utsav and S P Balasubramaniam at Subramnaya Temple were runaway hits, according to the organisers.

Unknown to many, semi-classical and classical music connoisseurs found themselves on the horns of a dilemma as to where they would go.

Thanks to efforts of peerless organisers like Dr M Mohan Alva, public and private sector banks in the coastal district, classical music has found a prominent place in these areas and more importantly DK district has positioned itself in the cultural circuit of music-sensitive cities like Chennai, Kolkotta among others.

With the erstwhile DK district hosting the ‘who is who’ in the music world, the general lament that the district has very less musical programmes has been solved with ‘too many’ programmes.

For instance, last week besides Yesudas, SP and Kadri Gopalnath, there was also Ronu Mazumdar, Ustad Rafiq Khan, Durga Prasad, Rajendra Nakood, Sonal Mansingh, Begum Parveen Sultana, Shila Mehta, Shashank, Purbayan Chatterjee, among others.

However, a lack of coordination among different organisers of classical events has prevented the music-loving public from deriving full benefits of such programmes.

As a result, the limited audience were a muddled lot not knowing whether to attend Kadri Gopalnath or Yesudas’s or SP’s concerts.

An attempt to chart out classical events in a calendar year under the aegis of an umbrella cultural organisation, as is being done in Chennai, was abandoned half-way with the egos of many organisers proving to be the main stumbling block.

The need of the hour is a forum of professionals to coordinate with other cultural associations to streamline and eliminate clashing of classical programmes.

Just like what the district Kambala committee is doing presently in the erstwhile DK district.

If the writing on the wall is ignored, organisers will find the process of organising concerts becoming more expensive which will result in the dwindling of connoisseurs and the backing of sponsors.