Hyderabad:Young artists who learn Indian music or dance now have an opportunity to take their talent to the next level share Mohan Hemmadi, a Hyderabadi who recently appointed as Honorary Advisor of Shankar Mahadevan Academy and Rithvik Foundation for Performing Arts, Pune, in a press note issued in the city today.

SAMMAAN is a worldwide talent hunt in Indian music and dance and is open for registrations he added.

Presented by Shankar Mahadevan Academy Trust and Rithwik Foundation for Performing Arts, SAMMAAN is a rare opportunity for artists to perform with the finest of talents and grow their talent from that competitive experience. The first edition of SAMMAAN has begun. Registrations opened already. The Grand Finale will happen on October 25.

Registrations close on August 15, 2020. Artists who wish to participate in this grand event can

register here: https://www.shankarmahadevanacademy.org/SAMMAANContest.

SAMMAAN will cover more than 16 genres of music and dance grouped under three board categories: Vocals – Hindustani,Carnatic, Dhrupad, Ghazal,Devotional Songs, Movie Songs,and Folk Songs; Instruments: Flute and other wind instruments, Santoor, Sitar,Sarod, Tabla, and Harmonium; and Dance: Kathak, and Bharatnatyam.

The mastermind for each category is a maestro from that field of art. The maestros include Shankar Mahadevan for Vocals, Talat Aziz for Ghazal, Purbayan Chatterjee for Strings,Jayateerth Mevundi for Classical and Devotional, Praveen Godkindi for Wind Instruments,Yogesh Samsi for Tabla, Satish Vyas for Santoor, Debopriya Chatterjee for Flute, Ajay Joglekar for Harmonium, and Rujuta Soman for Classical Dance.

SAMMAAN is designed to not just showcase rising artists but also to nurture their talent. The artists who participate in the contest will perform in front of these maestros in dance and music, and learn from the feedback they directly get from the maestros What’s more, the artists who win at SAMMAAN will get a chance to attend a Masterclass from the maestro in their category, and get a scholarship to pursue a higher study in that art. SAMMAAN will be an online contest hosted on SeekLMS and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy Online Contest Platform. The contestants for the Grand Finale will be selected by coaches from various genres. The Grand Finale will be held as a live, online event, and will be broadcast across the world on social media channels. To encourage large-scale participation, the entry fee has been kept nominal.

More than a contest, SAMMAAN is a movement. The founding partners of SAMMAAN, the Shankar Mahadevan Academy Trust and Rithwik Foundation for Performing Arts both view SAMMAAN as an innovative way to elevate the talent of aspiring performing artists.

“It has been my dream to build a comprehensive competition that is based on the intent to promote and nurture our art forms. Rithwik Foundation for Performing Arts was established as a charitable organization to support and revive all forms of classical Performing Arts SAMMAAN will help us find talent from across the world and give us an opportunity to nurture world class talent,” said Mr. Praveen Kadle – Founder, Rithwik Foundation for Performing Arts.

“SAMMAAN will offer every artist who comes to the contest a chance to become better at her or his art than ever before,” said Mr. Shankar Mahadevan, Cofounder, Shankar Mahadevan Academy Trust.