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Sawai Gandharva Music Festival
In the last 48 years, the Sawai Gandharva
Festival has become one of the most awaited
event for the music lovers of Pune.
Sawai Gandharva Festival is held every
year during the first fortnight of December
in the memory of the great Marathi artist,
Sawai Gandharva. Because of his remarkable
performance and singing talent on the Marathi
stage, Shri Ramchandra Ganesh Kundagolkar
came to be fondly called by his fans as
'Sawai Gandharva'.
The basic idea of the festival was to keep
the memory of Sawai Gandharva alive in the
people's hearts & minds, to make available
good music to the people, and create a platform
for the newcomers. It was with the help
of Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal, that Dr.
Nanasaheb Deshpande (Brother-in-law of Sawai
Gandharva), Bhimsen Joshi (student of Sawai
Gandharva) and Waman Rao Deshpande (cousin
of Dr. Deshpande) were able to start this
festival in 1953. It was also to mark the
first death anniversary of Sawai Gandharva.
Earlier, the Festival was held in the month
of September at Laxmi Krida Mandir. But
due to the rains, it was shifted to the
first fortnight of December. Due to its
growing popularity and the increase in number
of the audience, the venue was shifted to
the grounds of NMV-Raman Baug High School.
Lovers of music from all over Maharashtra
flock to this Festival.
Great artists of Indian classical vocal
and instrumental have performed here --
Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Ustad Bade Gulam Ali
Khan, Manik Verma, Begum Parveen Sultan,
Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma,
Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Mallikarjun Mansur,
Gangubai Hangal, and so on.
This year the Festival will be held from
the 7th to 9th December 2000.
- By Prasad Hiranwar
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