The 63rd Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan — one of country's biggest classical music extravaganzas, will be held on Saturday in 24 different cities across the country simultaneously. This annual music festival has been a tradition of All India Radio since 1954 featuring a galaxy of leading classical artists.
The event will be an amalgamation of various genres of music including Hindustani classical, Carnatic, folk and light music that would be rendered by more than 60 artistes alongwith 150 accompanists. While Folk and light music was introduced last year, this year has the new addition of western music, said the sources in Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
This annual concert will be held at 24 venues and artists featured in the concert will be broadcast over the period of one month on the National Hook up of All India Radio.
The evening concerts for Hindustani and Carnatic music will be held at 16 venues — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Agra, Bhopal, Chandigarh (Jalandhar), Dharwad, Jaipur, Pune, Valasad (Vadodara), Thiruvanathapuram, Kozhikode and Vizianagaram (Visakhapatnam).
The morning concerts for Hindustani music will be held at 2 venues — Patna and Shimla.
The evening concerts for light and folk music will be held at 5 places — Almora, Rampur, Sambalpur, Mysuru and Kalaburagi. The western music concert will be held at Shillong. The programme shall feature the Blues band Soulmate.
The event that has a rich legacy of hosting some of the country's eminent artistes in the past years — includes MS Subbulakshmi, Pt. DV Paluskar, Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ustad Bhismillah Khan, Pt. Pannalal Ghosh, Pt. Kumar Gandharv, Dagar Bandhu, Dr. Mallikarjun Mansoor, Dr. Basvaraj Rajguru, Dr. Gangubai Hangal, Acharya Brahaspathi, Madhuri Mattoo, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, VG Jog, S Balachander, Veena Doraiswamy Iyengar, among others.