Festival of Sacred Music, Thiruvaiyaru (2016)

About

The Festival of Sacred Music (FOSM), a 3-day festival that takes place in Thiruvaiyaru celebrating the cultural importance of this holy ground, aims to restore the pride of the Music Centre that existed in the town at the time of Saint Thyagaraja. The festival intends to showcase true and pure forms of music, with the goal of bringing something new to the local art and music landscape of Thiruvaiyaru. It features stand-out performances by artists who are the true torchbearers of their respective fields, carrying forward the tradition of music.

We at the Prakriti Foundation started the festival as a community initiative to acquaint the people of the Thanjavur district to exceptional performances and new worlds of music, and that too gratis. As with all Prakriti Foundation projects, the Festival of Sacred Music is founded on visionary principles – the idea behind conducting the festival at Thiruvaiyaru is not only to popularise music forms, but also to make the world aware of the rich heritage and tradition of the town, thereby encouraging heritage preservation and rural tourism. We work in close collaboration with Dr Rama Kausalya’s Marabu Foundation and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

The festival opens its doors to people all over the country and the world, inviting them to experience the art, culture and glorious heritage of the special place, Thiruvaiyaru and become etched in its fascinating history. The best part being that it is non-ticketed and is open to all!

The 2016 edition of the festival showcased performances by a diverse genre of artists such as Dr. Mukundraj Maharaj, performing his soul inspiring bhajans and kirtans; Aditya Prakash Ensemble, the Los Angeles based music group, performing a fusion concert and a classical vocal concert by Nithyashree Mahadevan.


Schedule

The 3-day festival ran from 26th to 28th February, 2016. For further details regarding the venue, time and synopsis of the various performances on each day, kindly select the date from the drop-down menu.


26-02-2016

Bhajans and Kirtans by Dr. Mukundraj Maharaj
Time: 07:00 PM Venue: Husoor Palace (Diwan Wada)

Performance by Dr. Mukundraj Maharaj – a soul inspiring discourse on the Ramayan, the Bhagawad Geeta and other scriptures, expressed in the form of bhajans and kirtans.


27-02-2016

Fusion Concert by Aditya Prakash Ensemble
Time: 07:00 PM Venue: Pushya Mahal Ghat

Performance by Aditya Prakash Ensemble, with Aditya Prakash on Vocals, Akshay Anantapadmanabhan on Mridangam & Kanjira, Aalaap Raju on Bass Guitar, Shreya Devnath on Violin, Vedanth Bharadwaj on Acoustic Guitar and MT Aditya Srinivasan on Tabla & Percussion.


28-02-2016

Vocal Concert by Nityashree Mahadevan
Time: 07:00 PM Venue: Panchanatheeswara Temple Mandapam

Performance by Nithyashree Mahadevan on vocals, singing popular Carnatic songs such as Om Namo Narayana and so on, with Shertalai R Ananthakrishnan on Mridangam, BV Raghavendra Rao on Violin and Alathur Rajaganesan on Kanjira.


Past events

To know more about our past editions of this festival, kindly select a Year from the drop-down menu below.

Click below to download details about this edition of the festival.

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