The Hindu Margazhi Music Contest results are out

The results of The Hindu Margazhi Music Contest for the year 2022-23, are out. Judges went through around 600 entries and selected 86 contestants, who will get gift coupons of various denominations as prizes.  

A total of 32 prizes were selected by violin vidhushis and gurus M. Lalitha and M. Nandini in the instruments category; 22 prizes were selected by guru and mridangam vidhwan Poongulam S. Subramanian, and in the Hindustani category, guru and vocalist Lalita Sharma chose 13 entries as fit for prizes. 

Carnatic vocalists and gurus Gayathri Girish and Varalakshmi Anandkumar, who between them heard and judged a whopping number of 306 entries under the vocal krithi and vocal thukkada categories, very judiciously chose 20 prize winners. This year, there are also over 20 entries that have received special mention from the judges.

As usual, the Child vocal category, had a lot of participants. Both the gurus were very appreciative of the efforts of the parents in taking time to make the videos. “Many of the entries are just brilliant and we hope the children will continue their training. Those who could not make it to the final three, were given special mentions,” said the vocalists.  

Ms. Sharma said that this year, she saw more variety in the instrumental category. “I saw youngsters presenting performances on the Sarod. Some children were really good. Parents must create a mahoul (atmosphere) of music at home so that children take to classical music. It will help them build their character, their mental strength and make them remain cool in the face of adversities. I have seen many such examples,” said the guru, who is a senior student of Pandit Jasraj.  

Judges Ms. Lalitha and Nandhini said this year they found it very challenging to select winners. “Even in the child talent and junior categories many seemed to have taken the entries very seriously. Rare krithis and thukkadas were also featured. We had flutes, mandolin and veena instruments and had to split the prizes accordingly,” they said. They added that The Hindu Margazhi contest offered them an opportunity to listen to a lot of enchanting entries.  

Mr. Subramanian said that most prize winners had presented outstanding performances. “I particularly remember one tabla entry. He has amazing talent. A few mridangam entries had embellished the common Aadhi tala with khanda nadai and thishra nadai. I was happy to see many girls too performing ghatam and konnakol. Since many entries were of a professional standard, I had a real tough job selecting the finalists,” he said.  

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, which has been supporting the competition for the past few years, is the co-sponsor this year too. V. Vetriselvakkumar CGM (Corporate Communications), Southern Region, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., said this was the third year that the Company had joined hands with The Hindu for this contest. “We are glad to be able to encourage many young talents in classical music.  

Here is the list:

Thukkada Vocal – Child talent 

First Prize – Varshini Praburaj 

Second Prize – Vibha Ashwin 

Third Prize – Aniruddha Pradhumna 

Special Mention – J.Sricharan, Sanjana Prasad, R.S. Charulatha, K.A. Vasundaraa 

Carnatic Krithi Vocal – Child talent 

First Prize – B.Sriranjani 

Second Prize – Vasundhara Ravishankar, Pragya Narasimman  

Third Prize – Pranav Adiga, Malavi. G  

Special Mention – S. Prahaladh, Ishaan Iyer, Vibhav Narasimman 

Thukkada Vocal – Juniors 

First Prize – Dhruv S Pathangi 

Second Prize – Jhanvi Shankar 

Third Prize – Prakrithi Jayanth 

Special Mention – U.Guruprasad, Vidita Ganesh, V. Keerthana, Kaavya N K

Thukkada Vocal – Seniors 

First Prize – Archana Murali 

Second Prize – Supriya R 

Third Prize – Dr. M. Sowmya 

Special Mention – Pranav Shankar 

Carnatic Kriti Vocal – Seniors 

First Prize – Svwaroopananda Kashyap 

Second Prize – Madhumitha Doraiswamy 

Third Prize – Dhanya S 

Special Mention – Jyothiradithya Venkataraman, Suhasini Srirangam, Vyshnavi Datta 

Carnatic Kriti Vocal – Juniors 

First Prize – Ragasudha Balasubramanian 

Second Prize – Mahanya Shree.S  

Third Prize – Srithika Srinivasan 

Special Mention – Vibha Krishnakumar, Aniket Iyer, Pratiksha B Deekshadar, Irene Philip 

Krithi Instrumental – Vina – Child talent 

First Prize – Vidhyashree Vijayakannan, Anagha Ramkumar 

Third Prize – Ishaani Ramaswamy 

Krithi Instrumental – Violin – Child Talent

First Prize – Harshitha Pradeep, Abhirama Bhat Neraniki Joise 

Second Prize – Pradyuti Srinath 

Third Prize – Akshara Balaji  

Krithi Instrumental – Violin – Juniors

First Prize – Mihir Rajeev, Eesha Sridharan, Niveditha Doraiswamy 

Second Prize – Aditi Ganeshram, Aiswarya Vaikunth, R Srikritii 

Third Prize – Medha. H, Anushree Iyer 

Krithi Instrumental – Mandolin – Juniors

First Prize – V. Vaibhav 

Krithi Instrumental – Flute – Juniors

First Prize – Pranit Rao Ch 

Second Prize – Aprameya Sheshadri 

Krithi Instrumental – Keyboard – Juniors

First Prize – K. Madhurkanth 

Second Prize – S.Sanjay 

Third Prize – V.Anush, Sai Anirudh M 

Consolation – R Sai Anishvar 

Krithi Instrumental – Flute – Seniors

First Prize – Soumya S, Poornima Krishna Emani 

Second Prize – Athira Nambiar  

Krithi Instrumental – Vina – Seniors

First Prize – Girija R  

Second Prize – Mathangi Karthikeyan  

Krithi Instrumental – Violin – Seniors

First Prize – Sravanthi Mopati  

Second Prize – Sunder Balakrishnan  

Krithi Instrumental – Keyboard– Seniors

First Prize – Srivaralaxmi V  

Second Prize – Sneha S  

Consolation – Sreeswetha Sudarsan  

Percussion – Child Talent

First Prize – Aniruddha P Kandadai (Konnakkol)  

Second Prize – Shreeranga A. Rao (Konnakkol)  

First Prize – K.K. Varun (Mrindangam)  

Second Prize – Tarun Ravi (Mrindangam), Krish Mohan (Mrindangam)  

Third Prize – Sreeram. A (Mrindangam)  

First Prize – Skanda Manjunath (Ghatam)  

Percussion – Juniors

First Prize – Atharva R Ghantennavar (Tabla)  

Second Prize – Isha Lagu (Tabla)  

First Prize – T. Anandha Maharaj (Ghatam)  

Second Prize – Shriman R Krishnan (Ghatam)  

Third Prize – Shivaranjani (Ghatam)  

First Prize – Abhinav Iyer (Mrindangam), Desikan Varadharajan (Mrindangam) 

Second Prize – P. Shivasankar (Mrindangam)  

Third Prize – R. Madhavkrishna (Mrindangam)  

First Prize – K Sukirti (Konakkol)  

Second Prize – K.P. Adhithi (Konakkol)  

Percussion – Seniors

First Prize – Swaminathan (Mrindangam)  

First Prize – Aryesh Amartya Mishra (Tabla)  

Second Prize – Jai Nagar (Tabla)  

Third Prize – Sagar Rakshit (Drums)  

Hindustani – Vocal – Child talent

First Prize – Aditi Shanbhag  

Second Prize – Kaushikee Banerjee  

Third Prize – Sarnavo Preetish  

Hindustani – Vocal – Juniors

First Prize – Neeladri Charles  

Second Prize – Kamya Ravi  

Third Prize – Ratnisha  

Hindustani – Vocal – Seniors

First Prize – Sreetoma Bandyopadhyay  

Second Prize – Gagan Dalvi  

Third Prize – Aradhna Nigam  

Hindustani – Instrumental – Child talent

First Prize – Prabhath Vittala  

Hindustani – Instrumental – Seniors

First Prize – Deepak  

Second Prize – Kartikeya Vashist  

Third Prize – Abhishek Kumar