Legendary Bombay Jayashri Ramnath earns Sangita Kalanidhi Award 2023, Know why Music Academy selected her

Finest Musician of South India 

The Music Academy is happy to announce the deserving awardee for the 2023 Sangit Kalanidhi event. Well-known “Bombay” Jayashri Ramnath will be honoured with the Nritya Kalanidhi title. Names in other categories have also been declared by the Madras Music Academy including Sangita Kala Acharya, TTK, as well as Musicologist Awards for the year 2023. 

Jayashri is a multitalented personality in the field of Carnatic Music. She is a vocalist, singer and musician who has sung in a variety of languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil films.  

🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/W8Mhyx0PPM

— Bombay Jayashri (@Bombay_Jayashri) March 21, 2023

The Epitome of Music

Bombay Jayashri comes from a family of musicians of rich heritage and she represents the 4th generation among them. She has added several music albums to her list of achievements in the form of cassettes and CDs. India’s fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri has also been obtained by her for her excellent contributions as a musician.

She has initiated collaborations with multiple notable personalities and artists from across the globe. She has always been open to experimenting with new and different forms of music. Her multiple collaborations include a multi-genre fusion of the Yaadhum Ure song in which Bombay Jayashri sang Carnatic melodies with various other international singers. 

It was also declared the theme song of the 10th World Tamil Conference. The album was featured in Amazon's Top 10 list of International Albums category in July 2020.

Other Awardees

The Nritya Kalanithi Award is decided to be presented to Vasanthalakshmi Narasimhachari, a dancer and acharya par excellence of both Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. According to the official release, two artists are designated for Sangita Kala Acharya. 

They are Palkulangara Ambika Devi, a Carnatic musician along with KS Kalidas, a senior mridangam vidwan. Moreover, the TTK awards will be honoured to Thirunageswaram T R Subramaniam, the grandmaster of Thavil vidwan from Thanjavur and Sargurunatha Odhuvar. 

Arimalam S Padmanabhan, a researcher in the field of classical music, dance and theatre is picked up for the Musicologist Award. All the artists who have been selected by the executing committee of Music Academy for the Sangita Kala Acharya category and the Musicologist awards are scheduled to receive the honours next year i.e. January 1, 2024. 

The President of the Madras Music Academy, N Murali said the 97th annual conference and concerts of The Music Academy will be organised after several months. As per the finalised schedule, the event will be between December 15, 2023, and January 1, 2024. Whereas the Nritya Kalanidhi recipient will be honoured at the inaugural ceremony of the 17th annual dance festival on January 3.

About Sangita Kalanidhi Award

This annual title called Sangita Kalanidhi Award is regarded as the most prestigious and highest degree award in the field of Carnatic Music given in India. The concept of this award first came in 1942. 

While the award includes a gold medal and a biruda patra (citation), in 1929 Shri T.V. Subba Rao and Vidvan T.S. Sabhesa Iyer received the big honour. Earlier, the award did not exist and it only came later after the President of the Music Academy, KV Kirshnaswami Iyer put forth the idea and decided some decades ago. 

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