Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 13: SaMaPa, Sopori Academy of Music and Performing Arts today announced the names of the recipients of this year’s SaMaPa awards, the exclusive national level honours pertaining to J&K.
The awards will be given on November 22, 23 and 24 during the ninth edition of the Academy’s Annual Festival, SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan.
The prestigious ‘SaMaPa Kala Vardhan Samman’ is being conferred upon Michael Steiner, Ambassador of Germany to India. The prestigious ‘SaMaPa Vitasta Award’, which carries cash honour of Rs 50,000 each, is being conferred upon Pandit Birju Maharaj and Pandit Anup Jalota. The prestigious ‘SaMaPa Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Award’, which carries cash honour of Rs 25,000, is being conferred upon veteran musician of J&K Abdul Gani Rather ‘Trali’. Arun Chatterjee is being honoured with the ‘SaMaPa Acharya Abhinavgupt Samman’, which carries cash honour of Rs 11,000. Salil Bhatt, the young instrumentalist and Ragini Rainu, the young Sufi songstress of the country are being awarded the ‘SaMaPa Yuva Ratan Samman’ which also carries cash award of Rs 11,000.
The announcement was made by general secretary of SaMaPa, the internationally acclaimed Santoor maestro, music composer and music conductor, Abhay Rustum Sopori in New Delhi.
He said that the awards were decided by the SaMaPa board comprising of Chairman Pandit Bhajan Sopori, Patrons Dr Farooq Abdullah, Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Shameem Azad, veteran singer of J&K, vice president and eminent musicologist Vijay Shankar Mishra and other committee members.
The awards will be given during the 9th Annual SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan 2013 which this year will feature concerts by Birju Maharaj (Kathak), Anup Jalota, Ragini Rainu (vocal), Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad), Ronu Majumdar (Flute), Ustad Rafique Khan (Sitar), Vidushi Kala Ramnath (Violin), Salil Bhatt (Satvik Veena) and many others including Rishi Shankar Upadhyay (Pahhawaj), Abhishek Mishra, Sachin Sharma and Zuheb Khan (Tabla) in the Swar-laya Samwad this year.
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