Parish Priest of the Church of St.Peter, Barkur is selected for the Sandesh Award this year for Konkani Music
The Sandesha Awards for the year 2013, instituted by Sandesha Foundation for Culture and Education, will be conferred on nine personalities from various fields, said Fr Victor Vijay Lobo, director of Sandesha Foundation, addressing a press meet here on Wednesday January 9.
The awardees are Vijay Kumar Kodialbail (Tulu literature), Leo D'Souza (Konkani literature), Kumbara Veerabhadrappa (Kannada literature), N Arjun Dev (journalism), Hamsalekha (cinema/TV), Jayalakshmi Alva (art), Dr K E Radhakrishna (best teacher) and Fr Valerian Mendonca (Konkani music).
In addition, a Special Recognition Award will be conferred on U C Paulose of Seon Ashram Trust.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony to be held on January 27 at Sandesh premises at 5.30 pm. Bishop of Bellary Dr Henry D'Souza who is also the chairman of Sandesh Foundation will preside over the programme. IGP (western range) Pratap Reddy will be the chief guest.
Each awardee will be presented with a cash prize of Rs 10,000 and a citation.
Sara Aboobacker, Dr Na Da Shetty, Richard Louis, Dr Na D'Souza, Chandrakala Nandavar, Dr (Fr) Charles Vas, Joel Pereira, Concepta Fernandes Alva, and Fr Mark Valder were in the awards jury.
Dr Na D'Souza, chairman of Sandesha awards committee and Ronald Gomes, convenor of the awards committee were present at the press meet.
Sandesha Konkani Music Award - Fr Valerian Mendonca
Born in Shirva parish in1949 and musically inclined from his childhood , he has First rank in BSc, BTh, MA in English as his qualifications, Fr Valerian Mendonca is a prolific musician. He has several hymns, anthems, songs, cassettes to his credit. As a choir master while at the Jeppu seminary , gave him great impetus to his music genius. He has written the anthems for the St Joseph Engineering College, Vamanjoor, Pompei College, Aikala, St Mary English Medium School, Udupi, Vidya Jyothi School Vamanjoor. More than 68 of his hymns are included in the diocesan music hymnal. He has written Kannada songs also which have been broadcast in Akashvani, Mangalore. Along with his friend Fr Clement Mascarenhas, he has brought out several music cassettes – 13 in Konkani, 1 in Kannada, 5 in Hindi. After working as Principal in several colleges, served as the Director of Sandesha, and presently is the Parish priest of Barkur and the Chancellor of Udupi Diocese.