Katie Nathan

It is December Season 2017 in Chennai

December season is here in Chennai and all the sabhas are buzzing with activity. Halls are filled with active saree clad women competing with enthusiastic dhoti clad men happily nodding their heads to the lovely rhythms of the who’s who of Carnatic music. This season sees the best of concerts and Sabha hopping is a common term for the rasikas. Each one carries a small handbook, a reckoner for the songs being sung with details of raga, tala and the composer. The young ones are much more adept, googling the song as soon as they hear it. Yes, the december music festival is here. The picture says it all – Hall filled and music lovers sitting next to Shri. Sanjay Subrahmanyan during the performance.

The next group is slightly different though they are also busy sabha hopping, they do it for a different reason. The sabha canteens are the favorite haunt. These are popup restaurants by famous caterers in the city available only during the season. Discussion range from the performance of the artiste to the tiffin in the canteens and its pricing. It is Chennai and a different one in this season.

Young and experienced performers have a stage here and it is activity time for everyone – music lovers and food lovers. Kartik Fine Arts and Brahma Gana Sabha concerts are already on, soon to be inaugurated are the festivals of Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha and Mylapore Fine Arts. It does not end here, there are many more – Narada Gana sabha, Thyaga brahma ganasabha, Krishna Gana Sabha, Rasika Ranjani Sabha , Music academy and even the area based sabhas like Ranjani sabha, Raga Sudha and many more will begin their season soon.

Not to leave out the television channels who celebrate the music season in their own way by hosting concerts in the evenings. Most of them move to dance festival after the music festival and it goes on till mid of January when the Thiruvayaru Saint Thyagaraja Utsavam takes place.

We started our season with a double concert, first of Sikkil Gurucharan and second of the ultimate singing of Sri Sanjay Subramanyan at Narada Gana sabha, Alwarpet under the aegis of Kartik Fine Arts.

For those keen on knowing what Sanjay sang, it was Sriranjani, Devagandhari, Thodi and Vachaspathi RTP and also a thukkada in Kamas.

Be it sabha hopping for the artist or food, if you are in Chennai, you just cannot miss feeling the festival enthusiasm all around.



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