Obit: S. Kannan, arts and heritage promoter and best known for December Season Concerts Guide

Arts promoter, curator and the man who was best known for the annual December Season Concerts Guide, S. Kannan passed away this morning after a prolonged illness. He was a resident of Abiramapuram.

A bank staffer, Kannan was deeply involved in the classical performing arts and in heritage projects and was a member of a few city-based arts organisations. Besides directing the paths of the bodies he was involved in, he would also emcee events and help some sabhas to curate their festivals.

But his foremost labour of love was to compile and publish in one pocket-book of some 200 pages, all the music concerts of all the sabhas in the city who held festivals during the December Season. In course of time, arts promoter Nalli Kuppuswamy lent support to publish and circulate this book. This was the must-have book for rasikas.

Said artiste Ramkumar R. in an online tribute – Kannan Sathyamurthy S sir’s passing away today is like the end of an era. He selflessly and passionately worked every year to bring out the Nalli Season Reckoner that was referred to by so many for December music season concert schedules. He was even called Nalli Kannan by many. Vikram K. Raghavan and I had the good fortune of working with him and assisting him in bringing out the book for a few years when we were running kutcheris.com.

Added Ramakrishnan of Arkay Centre, “Kannan was our asthana vidwan and helped us curate music festivals and he did this very quietly.”

Kannan was also a founding member of Tamil Heritage Trust and was part of Natyarangam, the dance wing of Narada Gana Sabha.