The `Madras Music Season' is perhaps the only one of its kind in the world. Spread across a period of almost 50 days in December to January every year, this festive season attracts hundreds of connoisseurs and organisers from round the globe to visit Chennai. Approximately 50 organisations present classical music and dance festivals of 10 to 20 days or more.

New Delhi, where every artiste wants to perform to make a mark, seems empty of artistes at this time of the year. The Delhi contingent represented at this year's Madras Music Season includes sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan at the Music Academy and vocalist Madhup Mudgal at the Brahma Gana Sabha. They will light up New Year's Eve with their concerts this Saturday. Odissi exponent Sonal Mansingh performed at the Raga Sudha auditorium. She was also the guest of honour at the inauguration of a new cultural society founded by Kuchipudi dancer Uma Muralikrishna. Bharatanatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan performed at the Brahma Gana Sabha, the Nungambakkam Cultural Academy, the Meenakshi Soundarrajan Cultural Academy, the Krishna Gana Sabha and other venues. The organisation Hamsadhwani featured a guitar and sitar jugalbandi by Kamala Shankar and Rajeev Janardhan, while Bharatanatyam dancer Geeta Chandran ushers in the New Year with a performance at the Krishna Gana Sabha. Upcoming vocalists Sudha Raghuraman, Vidya Srinivasan and Mahalakshmi gave solo concerts at various sabhas. It was surprising to see quantity rather than quality in the case of these aspirants. Mahalakshmi managed to give almost eight concerts with very few people in the auditorium, while Vidya was peeved at managing only four. Neeta Bala, a student of the Delhi-based Guru Kanaka Srinivasan, was among the young dancers. Jatis and adavu patterns composed by nattuvanar and mridangam player Karaikudi Sivakumar were highly appreciated by veterans in the field of dance.
If places like Lalgudi, Karaikudi and even Bombay have become synonymous with the famous musicians whose names they are a part of, why should Delhi be left behind? Thus Vidya Srinivasan is Delhi Vidya in Chennai. Of course there is the famous Delhi V. Krishnamurthy, whose disciple Srilatha Suresh gave a Bharatanatyam recital at Kartik Fine Arts this season.

A Kathak festival also took place at various venues. Besides the artistes, including Shovana Narayan, Vaswati Mishra and others, even compere Sadhana Srivastava was imported from the Capital.

Unparalleled learning Dance and music teachers often recommend that their students visit Chennai at this time as it provides an unparalleled learning experience. Some artistes fix up classes to learn with veterans. Every sabha or auditorium where festivals are held is equipped with restaurants, stalls selling music CDs, DVDs, etc. There are websites such as www.kutcheribuzz.com bringing comprehensive information on the events, besides a daily newsletter distributed free of cost at festival venues every day. The colourful tabloid published specially by The Hindu to mark the festival season is in great demand. Organisations also publish New Year diaries containing names and contact details of professionals and technical people associated with music and dance. There are seminars, lecture-demonstrations and discussions on classical music and dance by scholars and leading personalities from the field in the morning sessions, and the performances start from noon, continuing till late night.

The only problem faced by the artistes who come from outside Chennai is that the remuneration paid by the sabhas is so low, they are not able to cover the cost of travel, boarding and lodging, not to mention the payments and accommodation of accompanists. Some try to earn a quick buck by taking classes for students from other places.

There are many companies and institutions sponsoring the festivals, and one of the leading sponsors is Nalli Chinnasami Chetty of the Nalli group, assisted by the former director of Doordarshan, Chennai, A. Natarajan. The TVS group, banks and insurance agencies also tender financial support.
It is a festival in every sense of the word.