Several winners of The Hindu Margazhi Music Contest 2025 were felicitated here on Friday.

This year’s contest saw nearly 1,500 entries. Carnatic and Hindustani music practitioners in three categories – children (below 12 years), juniors (13-19 years), and seniors (20-40 years) sent video recordings of their performances.

Suresh Nambath, Editor, The Hindu, and L.V. Navaneeth, CEO, The Hindu Group, gave away the prizes to the winners.

Varalakshmi Anandkumar, senior musician, guru, and French professor, said, the participants performed meticulously. “There was so much effort, not just in learning the song and delivering it but the presentation as well. And with every video that we were listening to, we were thinking of the hopes and the hard work, not only of the child, but also of the parents and gurus. So, we felt doubly responsible for giving our best. There was such a volume of excellent, exquisite music,” she said.

M. Nandhini, violin vidhushi and guru (of the Violin Sisters—M Lalitha and M Nandhini) thanked The Hindu for organising the competition every year and giving a platform to many youngsters. It gives them motivation to succeed in their chosen art form, when they are given a platform. “Every year we find that the numbers of the participants swelling. The standard of music is always going up and this is a wonderful trend,” she added.

V. Vetriselvakkumar, Chief General Manager (Corporate Communications), Indian Oil Corporation Limited Southern Region (who are co-sponsors for the event), said that it was always a pleasure to join hands with The Hindu. The Margazhi Music Competition, which encourages young talent, was started during the pandemic, and it has come to stay. With every passing year, the number of participants has been increasing. Indian Oil wishes the winners all the very best.

The list of winners who received the prizes include: Avalur Anagha Kruti (first prize, krithi vocal-child), Anika Bhattathiripad (first prize, krithi instrumental-child), Pranav Shriram Iyer (first prize, percussion instrumental-senior), S Balaji (first prize, percussion instrumental- child), Advaith T (first prize, thukkada instrumental-child), B Nikkhilesh Siva (first prize,thukkada instrumental-junior).

Disha Muralidharan (first prize, thukkada vocal-child), Atchayaharini Bharanidharan (first prize, krithi vocal-senior), Ramcharan K (first prize, krithi vocal-junior), Haripriya .N (first prize, krithi instrumental-junior), Niveditha Arun Arun (first prize, krithi instrumental-senior), Vrusha Arvind (second prize, thukkada vocal-child), Mahathi Karthik Narayanan (second prize, krithi vocal-child), Ayushmaan Sairam (second prize, percussion instrumental-child), Keerthana (second prize, thukkada vocal-senior), Bhargavi Ramakrishnan (second prize, thukkada instrumental-child).

Krishna Sai (third prize, krithi vocal-senior), Isha Sudhir Rao (third prize, hindustani vocal-child), Nikesh V (third prize, hindustani instrumental-child), Tara Koushik (third prize, krithi vocal-child), Sakti Meenakshi Chebiyyam (third prize, krithi vocal junior) and Sudarshan Chariar (third prize, krithi instrumental-child).