The Season Online 2020

This year the Music Season in Chennai is online in a big way. Nothing can replace live concerts of course, but in a year of COVID, this is the responsible way to go for sure. For people like myself who do not get to attend the season often, this is an opportunity to hear more concerts than ever before. When I asked my sister yesterday, I was surprised that she really had not heard about most of these concerts. So I decided to write this small post to keep you all fellow rasikas aware of happenings.

1. Music Academy : Details of the program for the 94th Annual Concerts (Digital) and ticketing are now available at the link that follows. There are both free and paid concerts. Links for the paid concerts will be available for 48 hrs after they are streamed. Tickets can be purchased for individual concerts or for the season. Some relevant info is available here. Program and ticketing is at this link : https://musicacademymadras2020.eventvirtually.com/?fbclid=IwAR2UNobVdKrzH5lLupq49QXAveFAG1iQMj1X4ZskE4o-V5KbNAMyc-c-RIY
2. The Federation of City Sabhas : This society includes well-known sabhas in Chennai like Brahma Gana Sabha, Karthik Fine Arts, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha etc. Together they are organising ‘Yours Truly, Margazhi’ , which includes 100+ performances. Tickets are available at Kalakendra (link below) and there is an early bird offer until 5th of December. Link below :
   https://kalakendra.com/yours-truly-margazhi/
3. Madrasana : They are presenting 6 concerts in the Madrasana Virtual Festival 2020. These are ticketed events; there is a season pass as well as individual tickets. Please read their FAQ as the concerts are available for different time zones and links will be timed as well.
   https://www.tikkl.com/madrasana/c/mvf2020-india
4. Sastra Satsangh : They are presenting a full series of free concerts and discourses for a month starting 15th of Dec in their ‘Margazhi Mela’. The full program is available in their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SASTRASATSANGH. The concerts will be presented live in their youtube channel and will be available for viewing later if the time does not suit:
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2wLAep-tyQYQWL7NZ75iMg/featured
5. Mudhra : They are presenting 62 concerts in their 26th Virtual Fine Arts Festival in the month of December. Each day there will be one concert from their archives, and one recorded specifically for this occasion. The concerts will be streamed with a repeat telecast the next day at a different time. It is free of cost, but donations are welcome. Details in their youtube channel here
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4t9lxibpCqK3koTkjf_OjQ/videos
6. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan : They seem to be the only ones offering live concerts this year. As always they are free. Their website does not make it clear but it looks like they will also be telecast. Check out the details at
   http://bhavanschennai.org/programmes.html
7. Charsur Arts Foundation : They have a line-up of 30 performances in 16 days, available live and until end Jan 2021 for delayed viewing. Details below :
   https://charsur.in.live/global/
8. Kalasagaram Secunderabad : Their 53rd Annual Cultural Festival of Music is already underway. All the concerts are available on Youtube here : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6wy4oWwCxlYr8gTkOKCMag
9. Carnatica and Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha : Bharat Sangeet Utsav 2020 is already underway as well. Information and videos are available on their Facebook page ‘International Music Premier League-IMPL‘. All the concerts are available on YouTube here :
   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz5I2_dvuE7Cxdo2Ub5yE8Q

My thanks to Ramesh for forwarding a few of the above links. There may be other festivals I am not aware of; readers are welcome to provide links in their comments. As you can see, there is already plenty to keep us busy this season! Happy listening!