VIJAYAWADA:The second day of the Amaravati Global Music and Dance Festival 2018 saw captivating performances by some of the most well-known names in the world of music and dance, enthralling audiences of thousands of people and dignitaries.

 

Shri B Lakshmikantham, Krishna District Collector and Shri Himanshu Shukla, CEO, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority were the chief guests at the annual cultural extravaganza being held on the banks of the Krishna river at Punnami Ghat across three days.

 

The show began with a scintillating performance by the Malladi Brothers – Malladi Sreeramprasad and Malladi Ravikumar – whose music is marked by the perfect unison of two voices, wide repertoire and sruthi-soaked presentation of musical compositions. Their performances were followed by the felicitation of their father, the renowned classical vocalist Malladi Suribabu.

 

The audiences sat spell bound seeing the graceful movements of Deepika Reddy, one of the leading exponents of the Kuchipudi art form and the recipient of the Kala Ratna award from the Andhra Pradesh Governments. The air reverberated with the thumping beats of rock music when Shriram Alluri, the indie rock musical and songwriter from the UK, took the stage. Alluri’s music, composed for Tamil and Telugu films, is known for its grandness and euphoria.

 

The audiences were electrified listening to the famous composer SS Thaman who has established himself as a music director of repute in the South Indian film industry. The celebrated music composer performed for more than an hour with his team. After debuting his film career as an actor in Shankar’s Boys, he has since established himself as a prominent music director.

 

Perhaps the most eagerly looked forward part of the colorful evening was performances by the finalists of the Andhra Idol singing contest. The six finalists – A Jashwanth from Nellore and R Himani from Vijayawada in the category of five to 12 years, MSJ Vaishnavi from Vijayawada and Meda Arya from Amalapuram in the age group of 12 to 25 years and Rajesh Nagavarapu from Vijayawada and M Pavani Mokkarala from Vizag in the age group of 25 to 40 years – performed for five minutes each. With more than 50,000 hits on the website from November 3 to 13, up to 100 participants had made it to the pre-finals where they were judged by Tollywood music composer Madhavapedi Suresh to select the six finalists.

 

Andhra Idol is the first-ever digital singing talent hunt platform of Andhra Pradesh which unearthed hidden singing talent across the state by giving the finalists a golden opportunity to share the stage with leading music and dance maestros of India at the Festival.

Amaravati Global Music and Dance Festival 2018 is an annual flagship event of the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority to promote the city of Amaravati as a global hub for culture. The free-to-enter festival will continue until November 18 and feature power-packed global fusion performances by renowned Indian and International artists from Carnatic, Hindustani, Bollywood, Tollywood, Pop, Jazz, Rock and Folk segments. In addition, the festival will witness a variety of dance forms including Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi.

 

The third and concluding day of the event on Sunday will see several more renowned artists perform, including the leading mridangam exponentYella Venkateswara Rao; Grammy-winning Hindustani classical music instrumentalist Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; noted Indian violinist Mysore Manjunath; Bharatanatyam dancer Shobana; American saxophonist and composer George Brooks; the ‘Godfather of Indian Jazz’ Louis Banks; drummer Gino Banks; percussionist V Selvaganesh; and bass player Sheldon. Bollywood music composer Clinton Cerejo will be performing live with Bollywood playback singer Bianca Gomes and singer and composer Vijay Prakash.