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SAMPRADAYA
Sampradaya sings a different tune...in collecting and preserving
less known nuances of South Indian 'music and dance culture'.
 Sampradaya
is the brainchild of two foreigners, Ludwig Pesch, a German
who was learning the flute in Chennai and Michael Nixon, who
was learning the veena (a string instrument). They realised the
need for recording and archiving mike less informal concerts, and
documenting the rich experiences and expertise of great artists,
so that their knowledge can be passed down to later generations.
Sampradaya was started in 1980 with the aim to draw attention to
the lesser known areas of ‘South Indian music’ which
were ignored by commercial music producers and concert organisers.
It also aims to document, archive and make available the music tradition
of South India to anybody who is interested. The centre has been
funded by The Ford Foundation’ right from its inception.
It has achieved considerable success in collecting many rare recordings
of such greats as, G N Balasubramaniam, M D Ramanathan, Tiger
Varadachariar, and interviews of Venkoba Naig, Banni
Baig, and C S Sabkarasivam
 The
centre organises workshops and seminars on central themes of Carnatic
music, collects and maintains a library of books, journals, photographs
and newspaper articles pertaining to better understanding of South
Indian traditions. Sampradaya has an Audio Listening Library,
which is the only one of its kind in South India. Members
are eligible for free access to music recordings. The centre also
undertakes publishing of song notation books and monographs on music.
 The
library with its invaluable collection of books and journals are
a boon to students of music and art, who are usually found immersed
in music from walkmans that are provided by the centre free of cost.
Many stalwarts of Carnatic music like Bombay Jayashree, Santhanagopalan
and Nithyashree can be seen here either listening to
the rare collections or referring to books and notations.
The library is open to public at a cost of Rs 5/- per day. Memberships
are Rs 150/- per year and Rs 2000/- for life membership
Address: Sampradaya, No 1 Musiri Subyamanya Iyer,
Mylapore,
Chennai - 600 004.
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