Thanjavur: Festival of Sacred Music, jointly organised by Prakriti Foundation, INTACH and Marabhu Foundation, will be held at Thiruvaiyaru from February 17 to 19.

The festival is organised to restore the pride of the music centre that existed in Thiruvaiyaru at the time of Saint-composer Thyagaraja and to showcase it to NRIs, tourists as well as the local people. It is about reviving the best of Thiruvaiyaru – its arts and music, its landscape and the local life. It is not the concerts alone that are the objective, but also heritage preservation and rural tourism, a release said.

This year the festival will feature Hindustani Classical vocal by Kiran Pathak and Carnatic concert in whistle by Shiva on February 17, fusion music by Karthick Iyer on February 18 and Chitraveena recital by Ravikiran on February 19.

In connection with the festival, a Bhajan Competition will be held for students at Sangeetha Mahal, Palace Complex, Thanjavur on February 12. Students aged between 10 and 30 years can participate in teams. A team should have minimum five students and maximum 10 students. This total number of students includes the musicians also. They can sing a maximum of two bhajans within 10 minutes.

Selection will be held on February 12 morning. Finals will be held in the evening. Cash prize of Rs. 5,000 will be given to the winners and Rs. 3,000 to the runners-up. Accommodation for outstation participants can be arranged based on prior request on the day of the competition.

The winner will be given a chance to perform in the Festival of Sacred Music at Thiruvaiyaru. Every student will be given a participation certificate in the festival on the final day.

Interested students can register their details with [email protected] (or) [email protected]. For more details, contact the Event Coordinator Er. S. Muthukumar on 98424 55765.