West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee inaugurate the annual ‘Bangla Sangeet Mela’ today at Nazrul Mancha. She holds highest regards for artists and their art. She has announced several awards to felicitate artists connected to various form of art from time to time. Keeping with the practice, she also gave away ‘Sangeet Samman’ and ‘Sangeet Maha Samman’.
Various singers will perform at different venues across the city namely Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, Deshapriya Park, Princep Memorial, Phanibhushan Vidyavinod Jatra Mancha, Hedua Park, Madhusudan Mancha, Rabindra Tirtha between 13 to 19 February 2015.
An exhibition paying tribute to Sachin Dev Burman, Kishore Kumar and Rahul Dev Burman will also be held during this time at Gaganendra Pradarsasala.
The closing ceremony of Bangla Sangeet Mela will be held on 19 February 2015 at Rabindra Sadan with a whole night of musical function. The event is being organised by Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal.
Highlights of her speech from today:
- We will give away Sangeet Samman and Sangeet Maha Samman today. Sangeet Mela will continue for 7 days
- We will honour people associated with music from all over the world
- We gave the first Sangeet Samman to Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukherjee and Dwijen da
- I went to Bangalore personally to honour Manna Dey. He said he was touched to have been honoured by Bengal
- Those who are being honoured today are matchless. They have their own identity
- We are paying tributes to Rahul Dev Barman this year
- We should prepare a handbook of all the artists who have performed in various art forms – be it music or films
- The handbook of the artists will be released on Poila Boishakh (Bengali New Year)
- Kolkata is the cultural capital of the world
- Let music bring us all together. We are honoured to have been able to honour those who are present here
- We have artists from Darjeeling, jhumur artists here today. My best wishes to all
List of recipients:
Sangeet Mahasamman:
Jatiyo Sangeet Samman: