Kannada Playback Singers Dr B K Sumithra & B V Srinivas to Grace Singing Workshop at St Aloysius
Renowned & Legendary Kannada Playback Singers Dr B K Sumithra & B V Srinivas to Grace 2-day State Level Light Singing Workshop on 28 and 29 January at St Aloysius College (Autonomous) Mangaluru
Mangaluru: Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Mangaluru Press Club, Fr Praveen Martis SJ, the Principal of St Aloysius College, Mangaluru said, “St Aloysius College is proud to organize a two-day State Level Light Singing Workshop on 28 and 29 of January 2019 in the College Auditorium for students of Colleges and University as well as for teachers. This workshop will be conducted and guided by Kannada playback singers NaDoJa Dr B K Sumithra and Sri B V Srinivas, also a music composer”.
Also speaking during the press meet Dr Saraswathi, HOD of Kannada Department said, “The field of Light Music in Kannada has a great tradition. NaDoJa Dr B K Sumithra has rendered great service to this music field. She has traveled around the world and spread the fragrance of Kannada Light Singing and Music and has popularized it. She has conducted hundreds of Light Singing Workshops for various groups of people and has attracted many music lovers to this genre of music that touches the heart. She is a gem among the cultural ambassadors of Kannada culture and language. She has sung for many mainstream Kannada Movies and has made a mark of her own. Well known legendary Playback singer B V Srinivas has accompanied her in her songs in movies”.
Ms Chandrakala Nayak, PRO at St Aloysius College was also present during the press meet.
About NaDoJa Dr B K Sumithra:
Noted Kannada singer, Naadoja Dr. B.K.Sumitra – was born in a remote village of Karnataka, Bilalkoppa, to Patel Krishnaiah and Smt. Gangamma. She graduated with a B Sc. She is married to M.L.Sudhakar, and lives in Bangalore, and has two children, Sowmya and Sunil. She entered the film industry with ‘Kavaleradu kula ondu’ as a playback singer. She has sung for renowned music directors like Vijayabhaskar, M Rangarao, Rajan Nagendra, Upendrakumar and many more.
She is a household name in Karnataka, and is famous for the innumerable devotional and folk songs that she has sung. She runs a music school, Aaradhana Sangeeta Shaale, and is still active in the field of music, conducting Light music workshops and singing in live shows.
Her fans are numerous, her legacy unassailable. B.K. Sumitra, being one of Karnataka’s oldest and leading playback singers. Her rise to the top during the 1970s was the result of a single-minded determination to promote singing in Kannada and break the hold that artistes from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had over the local playback industry. Her voice is a part of nearly a hundred Kannada films. Over the years she has worked with a range of music directors and composers including Vijaya Bhaskar, M. Ranga Rao, BV Srinivas, the musical duo Rajan-Nagendra.
The tones and moods she has experimented with have ranged from light and bubbly to devotional and pastoral melodies. But contrast that with Vijaya Bhaskar’s song ‘Kareya Keli Bandeya’ from Anuradha (1960) where Ms. Sumitra’s handling of the soft and traditional approach highlights her depth of knowledge in classical traditions. She is unable to choose her best song. The songs from Namma Makkalu(1969), Upasane (1974) or the great number ‘Madhura Madhura vee’, along with singer P. B. Sreenivas, created history in the classical touches that they brought in.”
Music was an important part of Ms. Sumitra’s upbringing. Born in 1941 to Gangamma and Patel Krishnaiyya, who owned areca plantations at Bilalukoppa near Horanadu, her first exposure to melody was when areca-peelers from nearby villages gathered at night to sing folk melodies around a dimly lit petromax lamp. Sumitra’s musical journey got a boost in 1964 when G. K. Venkatesh asked her to sing for the film ‘Kavaleradu Kula Ondu’. She hasn’t looked back since then.
