Mangaluru : Countdown for the four-day Alva’s Virasat 2015, a cultural extravaganza organised by the Alva’s Education Foundation, Moodbidri, has begun.

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, the eminent playback singer who will receive the Virasat Award 2015, is set to enthral people on the inaugural day on December 24.

The valedictory function on December 27 will witness conferring of Alva’s Varna Virasat Award on artist Manu Parekh from New Delhi. The four-day event is packed with a variety of cultural programmes that would be performed at Vanajakshi K. Sripati Bhat open air auditorium which can accommodate up to 35,000 people at Puthige in Moodbidri, said Alva’s Education Foundation chairman M. Mohan Alva.

Mr. Alva told presspersons here on Monday that Mr. Balasubrahmanyam would be conferred the Alva’s Virasat Award on December 24 after the inauguration. It would be followed by Naadasurabhi—a special fusion of four violins by Mysuru Nagaraj, Mysuru Manjunath, Ganesh and Kumaresh from Chennai.

This would be followed by an orchestra where Mr. Balasubrahmanyam and troupe would perform.

Day two would witness ‘Raagarangoli’ by Kadri Gopalnath on the saxophone, Thanjavur Govindarajan on the thavil, Vikku Vinayakram on the ghatam, Vijay Ghate on the tabla, Praveen Godkhindi on the flute, Selva Ganesh on the ganjira, Taufiq Qureshi on the jambe, and V. Umesh on keyboard. Ustad Munawar Masum and group from Mumbai would then render Qawwali and Sufi songs.

Percussion artist Shivamani would lead the performance on Saturday along with Harmeet Manseta on keyboard and U. Rajesh on the mandolin. Students of Alva’s educational institutions would present dance programmes following this. Leading playback singers Vijaya Prakash, Karthik, and Mahalakshmi Iyer would render songs in ‘Sangeetha Vaibhava’ on Sunday. It would be followed dance performances by students.

Ahead of the Virasat, Varna Virasat, a national-level painting camp featuring 15 tribal artists is already under way since December 20. About 20 contemporary artists would join them in the camp which would be on till December 27, Mr. Alva said.

The institution has a collection of more than 4,000 paintings created by painters at this event since inception. Free bus arrangement has been made for art lovers to reach the campus before and after the event to and from Moodbidri.