For those who couldn't make it in person to the Youth Festival 2014, it is being streamed live on ustream. Here is the link:

http://ustre.am/Mtg2

Don't miss it!

It is hard to believe that we will be hosting the 25th program in our concert series this year. We are very happy to announce a special celebration to commemorate the milestone. Mark June 22 on your calendar. The best concerts presented in the last three years have been selected, and the musicians have been invited to perform in the Youth Festival 2014!.

In addition, two local talents who performed their arangetrams in the last 5 years have been selected to inaugurate this festival of talent. 

Here is the full program for the day:
Inaugural performance

• Vocal performance by Nikita Iyer
  
• Vocal performance by Nitya Ravichandran

Best of Hamsadhwani 

• Violin solo performance by Kiran Athreya
  
• Vocal and flute performance by Aamani and Pallavi
  
• Vocal performance by Srinivas Balaji
  
• Vocal performance by Manamohan Krishnan
  
• Veena performance by Guhan Venkataraman
  
• Vocal performance by Vani Ramamurthi 
  
• Vocal performance by Vivek Thyagarajan
  
• Veena performance by Hrishikesh Chary
  
• Vocal performance by Aditya Prakash
  
• Vocal performance by Anirudh Venkatesh
  
• Violin duet performance by Arun and Shiva ramamurthi
  
• Thala vadyam 
  

As a community, we should all be very proud of these young and talented musicians. In our own small way, we have helped them in their respective musical journeys and showcased their skills. The Youth Festival will surely be a musical treat for all of us!

Hamsadhwani's concerts uses the sound system owned by the Swaramanjari School of Music. During the initial days of Hamsadhwani, though the audio quality in the hall was acceptable, recording the live performances was a bit of a challenge. We had tried the audio recorders used in the classes to record, but the recording quality was not acceptable. There were all sort of noises from static to a baby crying during a niraval. Great performances like Delhi Sunderrajan-sir's Sobillu, Nishant Chandran's Madyamavathi, Ramakrishnan Murthi's RTP went without any recording. I could mention them just from my memory, such was the impact. Luckily we were able to get some recordings for other artists through their parents and friends, but they were not close to what we call 'CD quality'.

                It was obvious that the recording had to be done by getting the output from the sound mixer. We were using a Xenyx 1202 (12-input 2-bus) mixer from Behringer. It had four xlr mic inputs which we thought was ideal for concerts like the ones we have. There were outputs for main speakers and monitors. The performance was great. We felt like a college student on a corolla. But we did not have any gear for taking the monitor output and providing a feed to a recorder. Our choices for recording were either a voice recorder or a laptop. But for using a laptop we needed a proper interface.

                Thats when we turned our attention to Alesis iO Dock Pro. The advantage is that we could plug an iPad 2 into it and it takes the feed directly from the sound mixer. We tested to our heart's content and the sound quality was great. On concert day, the setup was done ahead of time, giving us some time for testing the recording using GarageBand. We were all set, or so we thought. The GarageBand app (or any other track recording app on iPad) would not record for more than 5 - 12 minutes. They are ideal for recording a song, not our concerts. Recording hours of concerts in high quality required a lot of RAM which only a desktop or a laptop can give. Sadly, we returned the dock.

                The inability to record live concerts is one of the factors that pushed me to buy the Behringer XENYX X2442USB Premium 24-Input sound mixer with USB output to record to a computer. Compared to the old corolla this is like an SUV with eight-cylinder turbo-charged engine. It took a special lecture demonstration from our sound guru Ramamurthi-sir to initiate me and to start using it. On concert day, I connected the USB output to my laptop and started recording it using Audacity. Sadly, my laptop was too weak for this turbo prop jet engine, and the recording stopped in half an hour. Again for recording Carnatic concerts, you need a powerful laptop with ample RAM. Now it’s time to upgrade my laptop...NOT!

                Luckily we were shown how recording is done, with a Sony recorder that took quarter inch output from the sound mixer, by Venkatraman-sir (Vignesh and Gugan's dad). My sound guru, Ramamurthi-sir, had been advising about it for several days, but seeing that in action was a turning point. We settled with the TASCAM recorder that looks like a regular voice recorder on steroids. It takes a 1/4 inch input from a sound mixer and records on SD card in mp3 or wav format. That solves all our problems that we have so far. We have been recording with this setup since Sunderrajan-sir's second concert. The processes to produce finished tracks is a little time-consuming but its achievable with my nonjaan laptop. The output levels can be checked while recording, but there are few things to take care from the sound mixer too. We have not mastered all the options, but just enough to produce a good quality recording to listen to. From the time you lay on the bed until you lose yourself in the concert and fall asleep.

What are the benefits of listening to live concerts? We approached and posed the question to two of the most eminent musicians and amazing teachers that we know. They are renowned and respected artistes from India who have been training young artistes in USA and India for many years. They were kind enough to record and share their thoughts in these videos.

Visit his website here: http://www.delhisunderrajan.com

Visit his website here: http://www.neyvelinarayanan.com/

Thank you very much Sri Delhi Sunderrajan sir and Sri Neyveli Narayanan sir. Your words are invaluable and we're sure our parents and children will take your advice to heart!.

We take the honor and pleasure to welcome you all for the thematic concert presentation 2013 by the  teachers and students of Southern California on December 22 Sunday from 10 am -3 Pm at the Simi Valley Senior Center.

I request you all to attend and support the young artistes who have been working hard for this presentation for the past six months.There will be a Powerpoint presentation by the students about their theme.

Since it is a full day event, breakfast will be available from 9 AM -10 AM.

Lunch boxes will be available from B3 Indian Restaurant for a nominal cost. Snacks and tea will be available throughout the day.

We are very happy to have such an enthusiastic music community. Please try to stay for the entire program and your presence is a great support and encouragement for these wonderful kids who put so much of effort and hard work to learn this wonderful art form.

Looking forward to meet you all on December 22 Sunday at the Senior center. I wish to thank all the volunteers who have signed for the event. Kindly find the invite attached to this post. Feel free to inform your friends and family.