Tamil musicians recognised at Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards

It was recently announced that thirty six artistes from across India, in the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry have been selected for an Indian National Award – The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards for the year 2012.

The legendary South Indian music composer Ilayaraja will receive an award under the section of Creative & Experimental Music. The 79 year old maestro has composed over 4500 songs in various Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Marathi.

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi held its meeting held on 21 December 2012 where it elected three eminent personalities in the field of performing arts for the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi fellowship.

Grammy Award-winning percussionist T. H. Vinayakram from Tamil Nadu is one of the three personalities. He is the first South Indian musician to be awarded the Grammy for Best World Music Album for his participation in Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, in which he played ghatam and morsing.

The honour of Akademi Fellow has been conferred since 1954 and Akademi Award since 1952. They not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements on a national basis, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution to the practice and appreciation of the arts through performance, teaching and scholarship.

The full list of Akademi Fellows and Akademi Awardees for the year 2012 are listed below.

Akademi Fellow (Ratna)
Smt N. Rajam
Shri T. H. Vinayakram
Shri Ratan Thiyam
Akademi Awards (Puraskar) for the Year 2012

Field of Activity – Music
Shri Rajashekhar Mansur (Hindustani Vocal)
Shri Ajay Pohankar (Hindustani Vocal)
Shri Sabir Khan (Hindustani Instrumental – Tabla)
Shri Bahauddin Dagar (Hindustani Instrumental – Rudra Veena)
Shri O. S. Thyagarajan (Carnatic Vocal)
Shri Mysore M. Nagaraja (Carnatic Instrumental – Violin)
Shri K. V. Prasad (Carnatic Instrumental – Mridangam)
Shri Illayaraja (Creative & Experimental Music)
Shri Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Other Major Traditions of Music – Gurbani)

Field of Activity – Dance
Smt Priyadarsini Govind (Bharatanatyam)
Shri Vijay Shankar (Kathak)
Shri Vazhengada Vijayan (Kathakali)
Shri Vedantam Ramalinga Sastry (Kuchipudi)
Smt Sharmila Biswas (Odissi)
Shri Jai Narayan Samal (Chhau)
Shri Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
Shri Jwala Prasad (Music for Dance)
Smt Aditi Mangaldas (Creative & Experimental Dance)

Field of Activity – Theatre
Shri Arjun Deo Charan (Playwriting)
Smt Tripurari Sharma (Direction)
Shri Waman Kendre (Direction)
Shri Parvesh Sethi (Acting)
Smt Nirmal Rishi (Acting)
Shri Purisai Kannappa Sambandan (Acting)
Shri Murari Roychoudhury (Music for Theatre)
Shri Ghulam Rasool Bhagat (Major Traditions of Theatre – Bhand Pather)

Traditional/Folk/Tribal/Dance/Music/Theatre and Puppetry
Shri Goru Channabasappa, Folk Music, Karnataka
Shri Kinaram Nath Oja, Suknani Ojapali, Assam
Shri Prem Singh Dehati, Folk Theatre, Haryana
Smt Sulochana Chavan Lavani, Maharashtra
Shri Mattannur Sankaran Kutty Marar Thayambaka, Kerala
Shri Govind Ram Nirmalkar Nacha, Chhattisgarh
Shri Heera Das Negi Mask Making, Himachal Pradesh
Shri Prafulla Karmakar Traditional Puppetry, West Bengal

Overall Contribution / Scholarship in Performing Arts
Smt Nandini Ramani
Shri Arun Kakade