Seniors away, youngsters get chance to shine this Margazhi

CHENNAI: It’s that time of year when the biggest names in music and dance converge on the city to dazzle rasikas and other artists, when more often than not finding an opportunity to perform on the big stage is a dream and usually remains one for younger musicians and dancers no matter how talented.
But these junior artists have a unique opportunity this Margazhi, with sabha organisers requesting them to take the place of established performers, many of whom have chosen to skip this year’s edition because they felt it would be inappropriate to celebrate the performing arts when the city is yet to recover from the devastating floods of early this month.
Sudha Ragunathan, Bombay Jayashree, Nithyashree Mahadevan, Yesudas and Vijay Siva are among the big names missing this December. Many sabhas had to change slots that fell vacant after senior artists announced their withdrawal.
Vocalist S Mahathi, for one, was lucky to get a slot at Karthik Fine Arts on December 10 in place of Nithyashree Mahadevan.
“My slot in Karthik Fine Arts a few days ago clashed with another sabha in which I was given an award and I asked for a change of timing,” Mahathi told TOI. “Since Nithyashree was not singing, the organisers asked me to perform in her slot.”
Several other sabhas have also invited young or unknown artists to perform in prime morning sets from afternoon programmes.
“We’ve changed the timings for many young artists this year,” Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha secretary M Krishnamurthy said. “Musicians who played the 2pm slots have got a chance to perform during the 10am slot, which we usually reserve for senior artists.”
Some junior artists like Prasanna Venkataraman, Amrutha Venkatesh, Ramakrishnan Murthy and Sangeetha Swaminathan have received the 10am slot from the oldest sabha in the city.
“I have been asked to perform in 10am slot and from the 2pm slot last year,” Amrutha Venkatesh said. “I feel like I’ve been promoted and that gives me more confidence. Other sabhas gave me 4pm slots.”
Some senior artists who did not get a chance in sabhas have also benefitted from well-known artists choosing not to perform.
“We altered the schedule after many seniors withdrew from the season. We decided to give chance to Sriram Parthasarathy and Gayathri Girish, who were not on our original list,” Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha secretary N Krishnamoorthy said.
Danseuses like Chitra Visweswaran, Anita Ratnam, Priya Dixit and Swarnamalya have, meanwhile, opened their houses to junior dancers who have no space to practise as many of their houses were flooded in the first week of December.
“We decided to share the space we have to dancers who are performing this season,” Visweswaran said. “Many of the dance artists do not have a separate space for practice or their houses were inundated. Some used to hire space during the season for practise but even those places are in bad shape due to the floods.”