Chennai’s Young Artists Shine at the Inaugural HCL Concerts’ The Carnatic Quest Junior
Chennai : HCL Concerts, a platform aimed at identifying, nurturing, and supporting the next generation of talent in the Indian classical performing arts space, today announced the winners of the inaugural ‘The Carnatic Quest Junior’. Artists from Chennai made a clean sweep at the junior talent discovery platform for Carnatic Music as five of the seven winners across categories hailed from the city.
‘Carnatic Quest Junior’, a one-of-a-kind contest, is conceptualized jointly by HCL Concerts and Rhapsody Music Foundation to identify gifted Carnatic musicians in the age group of 12 to 18 years. The first edition received an overwhelming participation from 2000 young musicians from 40 cities in India, a testament to the vast talent pool for Carnatic music in the country. Seven aspiring musicians were declared as winners across five categories, i.e. Carnatic vocal, Veena, Violin, Flute and Percussion.
The winners from Chennai are Nanditha Kannan (16 years) and Shakthi Muralidaran (15 years) in vocals; Charulatha Chandrasekar (15 years) in Veena; Chinmayi CS (17 years) in Violin; Avamsidara (17 years) in Percussion (Mridangam).
The other two winners, Vignesh SridharIyer (17 years) and Achyuth M Athreya (12 years) were from Pune and Bengaluru respectively.
Announcing the winners, Sundar Mahalingam, President- Strategy at HCL Corporation said, “The pursuit and appreciation of Carnatic music is an integral part of life in Chennai and the results of Carnatic Quest Junior are a testament to the passion of the citizens of the city for this art form. I want to congratulate all the winners and wish them all the best as they now gear up to showcase their talent to the larger world through the HCL Concerts platform. Over the last 24 years, HCL Concerts has endeavored to identify, nurture and support established as well as young Indian classical performing artists. The Carnatic Quest Junior is our effort to identify, showcase and nurture young Carnatic music talent in our country and see them evolve into maestros of tomorrow.”
The winners of Carnatic Quest Junior were chosen after three rounds of evaluation held over a period of two months. The final round had 50 entries out of which seven artists were crowned as India’s finest young Carnatic musicians by notable jury members including Vocalists Ranjani and Gayathri, Violinist G J R Krishnan, Veena maestro Jayanthi Kumaresh, Flautist J A Jayanth and Percussionist B C Manjunath, along with the Rhapsody Music Foundation.
Anil Srinivasan, Distinguished Classical Pianist, Kalaimamani award recipient and Founder of Rhapsody Music Foundation said, “Collaborating with HCL Concerts that is devoted to identifying and nurturing next generation Indian Classical musicians aligns with Rhapsody Music Foundation’s commitment to encourage pursuit of classical music from a young age. I would like to congratulate all the winners on this wonderful recognition of their perseverance, talent and hard-work. We are looking forward to mentoring these youngsters and seeing them evolve into maestros of their art as they grow older.”
The winners have earned themselves an opportunity to be mentored by senior artists and Carnatic music maestros such as Smt. Ranjani & Smt. Gayathri, Smt. Jayanthi Kumaresh and Sri G J R Krishnan, among others. They will also receive a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform in front of a global audience on the HCL Concerts social media platforms. Winners will also be featured in an exclusive HCL Concerts music album.