festival during December. Dr U. Rama Rao was the founder President of the academy and Basheer Ahmed Sayeed, the founder vice-president. The present President is N. Murali. The six past presidents are: Rama Rao, K. V. Krishnaswamy Iyer, T. L. Venkatarama Iyer, T. S. Rajam, K. R. Sundaram Iyer, and T. T. Vasu. Before the present building (T. T. Krishnamachari Auditorium) was constructed, the annual conferences and programmes were held in various locations around the city. The building During the first few years, the academy conducted its activities provisionally in George Town and later moved to Mylapore. In 1955, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for the music academy building that exists today on TTK Road in Mylapore. It was inaugurated on 20 December 1962 by Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur, the then Governor of Madras. There are two buildings for the Music Academy: The T.T. Krishnamachari Hall The Kasturi Srinivasan Hall The T.T. Krishnamachari Hall is the first building that was built in 1955. It has a seating capacity of 1600. The Kasturi Srinivasan Hall was built in 1982. It houses a small auditorium for conferences and concerts, a library, a committee room and a recording and demonstration room. It was here that T. N. Rajarathnam Pillai's tapes and audio CDs were produced. Kasturi Srinivasan's nephew's son, N. Murali, the Joint Managing Director of The Hindu, is the current President of the academy. Awards, recognition and contributions Sangeetha Kalanidhi: The Music Academy, since 1929 has been recognising and rewarding people who contributed to the field of Carnatic music by honouring them with the title Sangeetha Kalanidhi. In 1968, M.S. Subbulakshmi was the first woman to receive the Sangeetha Kalanidhi award from Madras Music Academy. Sangeetha Kala Acharya: It was later in 1993 that the academy also started giving out the Sangeetha Kala Acharya title. It is awarded to 2 or 3 senior musicians every year. Natya Kala Acharya: Since 2012, the academy has been recognising dancers with the Natya Kala Acharya title. A separate Dance conference is held in the first week of January. This award is now renamed as Nrithya Kalanidhi. Vaggeyyakkara Award Musicologist Award Spirit of Youth-festival of Dance and Music: During the October of every year nearly 40 young artists are projected by the academy for their Classical Music and Dance talent. Special TTK Award Special Life Time Achievement award: This award has been conferred on