Chennai Music and Dance Festival Dec 2011

Hi, Does anyone know where to find details about the Chennai music and Dance Festival this year? Poking around google I find descriptions but not locations/times.
Thank you

The festival is entirely anarchic: there is no central organising or publicising authority, but a lot of individual organisations putting on thousands of events.

On a day-by-day basis, when here, the main resource for concert listings is The Hindu newspaper. For pre-planning... I just go and look out some useful links for you. Back in a minute.

A few links to be going on with....

• The Music Academy: Music Festival ... Dance Festival
  
• Kutcheris.com A calendar which has, in previous years, given good coverage. Not much there yet...
  
• Kutcheris.com Sabha Listing A directory of organisations. A few will have websites, and one or two of them might have updated their site less than five years ago .
  
• Concerts in Chennai is a blog. The write tries to list as many programs as possible. Depends how busy he is. Already he has some artists' schedules for season listed.
  
• Sabha LocationsWhere they happen, where to eat, ideas about what to google to find out more
  
• KutcheriCalendar A new initiative to cover more than just Chennai. Details here, including how you can link your Google, etc, calendar to it.
  
• Rasikas.org Carnatic music forum

Otherwise suggest google "Chennai Sabhas"

awesome, thanks Nick!

That's ok ... it is what I do during those times when I'm not being a hermit in front of a PC. In fact, although "The Season" is a wonderful social event as well as musical, and I meet old friends from London, and new friends from all over, I almost prefer the rest of the year, when things are not so frenetic, and most of the concerts are free <Blush>

Enjoy. When are you going to be here?

We'll be there Dec 1st - 22nd. We'll also be visiting Pondicherry, Mamallapuram (which I understand also has a dance festival going on in Dec/Jan) Cochin/Allepy, Bangalore and maybe Mysore, but most of the time we'll be in Chennai.
I welcome any sage advice you have on any must sees/attends in any of those areas.

I only know my home ground, I'm afraid. I don't even know the dates of the Mahabalipuram festival, but Google probably will.

There is a season of concerts in a very nice open-air setting in Trivandrum, Jan 6th to 12th --- if you happened to be there.

I wish! but unfortunately we have to be back home by the end of December.. work! work! work! ThumbsDow Maybe next year.
I'm sure with the links you posted above we'll be able to find some good performances in the time we're there though.
Thanks again

You're welcome. Also welcome to drop me a PM when you are here.

Whatever you plan, always check out The Hindu, p.4 every morning over several cups of chai.

Most of the morning and early afternoon slots are free. The later concerts tend to be charged. The Music Academy evening programs often need queueing for tickets in the early morning, so I don't see many. I will be there on the evening of 15th, for my queen of music R Vedavalli, and on 21st, 1.45pm for her brilliant student Sumithra, with a London-based friend of mine playing violin.

Brilliant! Sounds like fantastic concerts, I can't wait! ttys

http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/ is another website that provides information

I did check that one, but their calendar looked suspiciously blank, so I left it out.

Still worth adding to the link list for general info, though.

It is, possibly, the biggest music/dance festival in the world, with dozens of organisations putting on hundreds (thousands maybe!) of performances. Due to lack of any central organisation* there is little promotion, and certainly none abroad.

Thousands of tourists pass through Chennai every December (due to climate and coincidence with Christmas holidays, it is tourist high season) without ever being aware of any of this. That is a shame. This Carnatic music is a form of Indian classical music specific to the South. It is not everybody's cup of tea, but it is a shame to come here (at any time of year) without at least tasting it.



*There is an association of sabhas --- but I doubt that it is of any value to the music-listening public. They probably run courses for each other on how to make their speeches longer and more boring!

NB about the lingo, for those who haven't a clue what we are talking about...

Kutcheri: Performance of classical music. Simply (Mrs N says), Tamil for concert.

Sabha: Organisation, or club, of carnatic music lovers, presenting concerts for themselves and public

It's all happening: Right Now!

A wealth of information I moved to Chennai a couple of years back, but I never really made up my mind to attend the kutcheris here in the last few years (My academic commitments around this time in the calendar being the excuse).

I must thank you, for the kindling - I hope to attend a few around the end season

Hurry up! Although it is technically a whole month, the peak for music is in December. It winds down somewhat then, with dance carrying on in January.

Yes, I've been to a few concerts in the past week or two. I go to concerts all year: it is the social aspect that ramps up in the Season. Over the past few days, I've spent time chatting to people from America, Canada, and UK. In fact... covered all those just this afternoon!

Enjoy