Chennai music festival: This organisation conducts concerts to raise funds to support artists

CHENNAI: Sunaadalahari, the musical wing of Indira Ranganathan Trust, has been conducting a music festival during the December music season in Chennai for the last five years. However, in the last three years, Sunaadalahari has made the festival a fundraising initiative. The money it raised is used for supporting deserving artists.“In 2020, we were one of the few organisations that could hold physical, live concerts, as we have an open-air venue. And we were able to support 96 artists, including nadaswaram and thavil players, as well as sound engineers, whose livelihoods had been impacted by Covid-19. We identified artists in remote villages,” says Manikandan Murali, director, Sunaadalahari, which conducts its concerts in a garden amphitheatre on the C P Ramaswamy Road in Alwarpet. “In 2021, we supported sculptors across TN as well as those in a village near Lonavala.”Sunaadalahari is a charitable organisation that conducts cultural activities and aims at promoting ancient art forms and artists. “This year, we began the concerts on November 30. It will go on till December 29. The money raised will be used to support artists who practise ancient art forms such as villu paatu, therukoothu, jalatharangam and others,” says Murali. “The idea is to not only support artists monetarily but also give them a platform to perform and create awareness about the art forms among Chennai rasikas. So the artists we identify will also get an opportunity to perform at various festivals next year.”The concerts are being recorded and rasikas can buy digital passes to watch the videos after the music festival is over.