Now Reading: Powai teen wins 10 awards at Shanmukhananda music contest
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Powai teen wins 10 awards at Shanmukhananda music contest
A 15-year-old from Powai, Sriram Kartik, won ten awards at the Sri Shanmukhananda Bharatiya Sangeetha Vidyalaya's 70th annual music competition on August 23, 2026, in Matunga, Mumbai. He secured nine individual prizes…
A 15-year-old from Powai, Sriram Kartik, won ten awards at the Sri Shanmukhananda Bharatiya Sangeetha Vidyalaya's 70th annual music competition on August 23, 2026, in Matunga, Mumbai. He secured nine individual prizes across Carnatic vocal and mrudangam, including five first prizes, and the Best Junior contestant cash award for the 10, 15 age group.
Vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan presented the prizes. The February competition drew over 300 participants from India and abroad. Sriram, a Class X student, began mrudangam at age five and now trains under percussion veteran Umayalpuram K Sivaraman. He holds a CCRT scholarship from the culture ministry and gave his mrudangam arangetram in June 2025.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The Shanmukhananda competition traces to 1955, when the sabha began organising annual music exams to systematise Carnatic learning in Mumbai's migrant Tamil community. Endowments naming prizes after artists like GNB and Kalki are common in sabha culture: they fund the purse and keep the donor's name alive. What matters here is not one teenager's haul but the structure of the competition itself, 300-plus entrants, three age groups, many disciplines, which makes it a de facto feeder for the December Chennai music season. The number to watch is whether Sriram or other prizewinners get a slot at the Music Academy's margazhi festival, where sabha prizewinners traditionally debut.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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