Music season · Fri 30 Oct 2026
Chennai in December: the Margazhi season, sabha by sabha
For a few weeks each December, Chennai runs on Carnatic music: dozens of sabhas, hundreds of concerts, and in 2026 the Music Academy's 100th season at the centre. The dates on this calendar are tentative, and that is part of how the season works.
December in Chennai is not a festival with a gate. It is a season that takes over the city's concert halls for the Tamil month of Margazhi, organised sabha by sabha, hall by hall, with morning lecture demonstrations, afternoon recitals and evening concerts stacked from mid December into January. One honest note first: the Margazhi records on this calendar, including the centrepiece below, are marked tentative. They are built from the previous editions and the compiled Chennai December season schedule, and each sabha confirms its own programme and tickets on its own page. Check there before you book travel around a single concert.
The centrepiece: the Music Academy at 100
The Music Academy's 100th Annual Conference and Concerts is expected to run from Tuesday 15 December 2026 to Friday 1 January 2027 at the Academy's hall on T.T.K. Road in Alwarpet. A centenary edition would be a draw on its own, and the Academy has announced veena artist Jayanthi Kumaresh as the 2026 Sangita Kalanidhi, its highest honour: by tradition she presides over the conference sessions and receives the award at the Sadas on 1 January. If you do one formal thing this season, this is the room.
The sabha circuit around it
The season is the circuit, not the single hall. Sri Krishna Gana Sabha's 70th Margazhi Mela is expected from 12 December to 3 January in T. Nagar, including the Natya Kala Conference for dance from 26 to 28 December. Narada Gana Sabha's Isai Natya Nataka Vizha is expected from 13 December to 1 January, also on T.T.K. Road in Alwarpet, a short walk from the Academy. Brahma Gana Sabha's December Art Festival is expected from 11 December to 8 January, Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha's season at Vani Mahal from 15 December to 15 January, and Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha's 126th Isai Vizha from 17 December to 1 January in Mylapore. Dance has its own anchor: Kalakshetra's 73rd Annual Art Festival, expected 18 to 27 December on its campus in Thiruvanmiyur.
How to work a day of it
Build the day in layers: a morning lec-dem to learn how a raga is put together, one afternoon concert, and one evening headline concert, rather than four concerts back to back. Leave gaps, because the season's other institution is the sabha canteen, and half the criticism and all the gossip happens over coffee between concerts. Stay near the circuit: Alwarpet, Mylapore and T. Nagar put the main halls within a short ride of each other, and the Chennai guide gathers the city's December around the season.
The day trip at the edge of the season
When the halls have filled your ears, the coast road south holds the season's open air counterpart: the Mamallapuram Dance Festival, expected from 21 December to 20 January on an open air stage near Arjuna's Penance, classical dance against carved rock. It pairs naturally with a Margazhi week, and it carries the same tentative label, so confirm the programme before you hire the car.
More reading on the articles page, or go straight to the events calendar.