Golden jubilee of Chembai music festival to be celebrated across State 

The Guruvayur Devaswom Chembai Music Festival is stepping into its golden jubilee year, and the Devaswom is panning large-scale celebrations to match the grandeur of the milestone.

Stretching over a year and covering six venues across the State, the programme will honour the legacy of Carnatic maestro Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar through memorial lectures, music seminars, felicitation of his disciples and veteran performers, and the release of a special golden jubilee edition of the biography Chembai Sangeethavum Jeevithavum.

The State-level inaugural ceremony will be held at Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar’s native village of Kottayi, Palakkad, on Sunday at 5 p.m., coinciding with the first day of Chingam in the Malayalam calendar. Festivities will begin with floral tributes at the Chembai Smriti Mandiram and Chembai Mandapam.

Devaswom Minister V.N. Vasavan will formally inaugurate the celebrations and release the golden jubilee logo, handing it over to Devaswom administrator O.B. Arun Kumar.

Guruvayur Devaswom Chairman V.K. Vijayan will preside over the function. K. Radhakrishnan, MP, will be the guest of honour, releasing a commemorative postal stamp and cover. P.P. Sumod, MLA, will launch the golden jubilee edition of Chembai’s biography.

Eminent disciples and contributors, including Chembai’s disciple Sukumari Narendramenon, mridangam maestro Kuzhalmandam Ramakrishnan, Fine Arts Society secretary P.N. Subbaraman, and logo designer Vimal will be honoured.

Poet and writer Alankode Leelakrishnan will deliver the Chembai memorial address.

Following the formal function, music lovers will be treated to a Carnatic concert by musician T.M. Krishna, accompanied by Dr. Thiruvananthapuram N. Sampath on violin, Harinarayanan on mridangam, and Thiruvananthapuram R. Rajesh on ghatam.

As part of the jubilee celebrations, a seminar will be held on August 19 at Government Chembai Memorial Music College, Palakkad, which will be inaugurated by Principal Thodupuzha Manojkumar.

The golden jubilee festivities will be hosted at the Guruvayur temple; Kozhikode Tali temple; Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Regional Theatre, Thrissur; Vaikom Mahadeva temple; and Thiruvananthapuram Srivaraham Chembai Memorial Hall, apart from Chembai’s native village.