Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and Santoor exponent Shivkumar Sharma were among the recipients of Sangeet Natak Akademy fellowship and awards given to 47 eminent persons by President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Tuesday.
A total of 11 eminent persons in the field of music, dance and theatre were nominated for the Akademy fellowship for 2011, which included along with Khan and Sharma, flute legend Hariprasad Chaurasia, who could not make it to the function due to his prior engagements.
Besides this, 36 eminent personalities and artists, including well-known film and television actor Vikram Gokhle, were conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademy Awards.
Those conferred with the highest honour of Akademi fellowship received Rs 3 lakh, an angavastram and a tamrapatra.
The eminent representatives of music, dance and theatre, who received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards received Rs 1 lakh, an Angavastram and a Tamrapatra.
Two of the Akademi Awardees Sundari Krishnalal Shridharani, an eminent threatre personality, who set up Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi and director and playwright Alakhnandan were given the award posthumously.
Their family members received the awards on their behalf after the ceremony was over. Both of them passed away earlier this year after they were named for the awards.
The oldest living artist to receive the award was Kerala musician Thrippekulam Achuta Marar, 91, who came on a wheelchair. Mukherjee got down from the stage to offer him the award. The youngest to get the award was 48 year-old Bharatnatyam dancer Narthaki Nataraj.
Khan, who received the Sangeet Natak Akademy fellowship this time had earlier got the Akademy Award in 1989. He is a recipient of many prestigious awards, including Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and the UNESCO award.