Public Concert on Saturday, September 24, 2022, at Trusts Arena, Henderson
Special Rates of admission announced
Venkat Raman
Auckland, September 21, 2022
Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, arguably the most prolific and versatile music composer in the world, arrived in Auckland last evening for his public concert scheduled to be held on Saturday, September 24, 2022, at Trusts Arena Stadium located at 65 Centre Park Drive, Henderson, West Auckland.
He was received at the Auckland International Airport by the Organising Committee and supporters including Yugendran Vasudevan, Sardar Jamil, Frederic Doss, Anton Leslie, Nagesh Nemani, Indra Sirigiri and Venkat Raman. Master Darshan Yugendran welcomed Ilaiyaraaja with a special New Zealand gift.
The Maestro is accompanied by a 47-member team of singers, instrumentalists, performers, technicians and others.
Venkat Raman (Photo Supplied)
The Performing Musicians
Among the Singers at the forthcoming programme include Anitha Karthikeyan, S P Charan (son of the late S P Balasubrahmanyam), Karthick, Madhu Balakrishnan, Mano, Narayanan Ravishankar, Peer Mohammed, Priya Babu, Sarath Santosh, Shenbagaraj, Shweta Mohan, Srisha Andra, Sucharita Venkataramanan, Surmukhi Raman, Vasudevan Kumaraswamy, Vibharavi and Yugendran Vasudevan.
A few tickets at special rates are now available.
Please contact Sardar Jamil on 022-0889051 or Yugendran Vasudevan on 027-2277789.
(Photo Supplied)
About Ilayaraja
Ilayaraaja is the world’s most prolific musician and has composed more than 7000 songs in over 1400 films (a majority of them in Tamil) and performed hundreds of stage shows all over the world. He was one of the earliest artistes to use Western harmonies with Indian arrangements, broadening the scope of the Indian music industry.
He is rated among the 25 greatest film composers in the history of cinema among Ennio Morricone, John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith.
The Indian government honoured him with two Padma Awards- Padma Bhushan in 2010 and Padma Vibhushan (the second highest civilian award) in 2018. He also received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2012. Nominated by the BJP government, he was sworn in as a member of Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament on July 25, 2022.
He is 75 and his admirers are taking him around the world for stage shows.
The Concert Tour of 2022
Among the highlights of the forthcoming Ilayaraaja Concerts in Australia and New Zealand in September 2022 will be the presence and performance of Aucklander Yugendran Vasudevan, son of the late Malaysia Vasudevan, who rendered almost 10,000 songs in Tamil and other Indian languages, lending his voice to almost all leading actors of the era.
Yugendran has continuously proved that he is a chip off the old block at many events in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, the United States of America and Europe.
This is Ilayaraaja season, for concerts were held in recent months in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, the current tour includes Singapore (held on August 20, 2022) Sydney and Melbourne (held last weekend) in Australia and Auckland in New Zealand.
