Mangalore: Musical tribute to Kadri Gopalnath

Pics by Dayananda Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network

MANGALORE, Dec 10: All roads led to Kadri Manjunath Temple here for about 200 instrumentalists in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts on Tuesday.

They performed in groups to pay tribute to district’s own saxophone exponent Kadri Gopalnath, who has just turned 60. The artistes, most of them in their 30s and 40s, hit the stage one after another to showcase their talent. Even Sangeet Nritya Academy president Narasimhalu Vadavati was present. The event was called “Vadya Nada Vaibhava”. Mr. Gopalnath and his wife were also felicitated by the artistes. On his part, Mr. Gopalnath felicitated his teacher N. Gopalkrishna Iyer.

Nagesh A. Bappanadu on the nagaswara set the ball rolling with his group performing “Vaataapi ganapathim” in Hamsadhwani raga and aadi taala. Mr. Gopalnath too performed for a while. He paired up with Kanyakumari on the violin to present a piece composed by Thyagaraja.

He was accompanied on the mrudanga by R. Dilip, Additional Superintendent of Police of Dakshina Kannada. Pandit Vadivatti played the clarinet. He chose to play raag shuddh saarang and was accompanied by Rajendra Nakod on the tabla. The first to do so was K. Anatharam and troupe.

Then, it was the turn of artistes from other places to perform. H.R. Kumar a saxophonist from Hiriyadka in Udupi district expressed his joy on being part of such a programme. He said it brought together many artistes under one roof and enabled them to interact with one another, something that rarely happened.

The organisers announced that 500 artistes would perform at one go. That was not to be.

About 200 artistes turned up and they performed individually. In all, 20 groups from various parts from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts presented programmes on the Kadri temple premises.

The programme was inaugurated by managing trustee of the Kadri temple A.J. Shetty.