Aditya Prakash is a young, upcoming Carnatic vocalist currently learning underreputable, venerated guru’s PS Narayanaswami and Palai CK Ramachandran. His earlier training was under Sugandha Kalamegham, Rose Muralikrishnan and Debur Shrivathsa. Aditya has had the fortune of performing, touring and working with Sitar Maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar, since the age of 16. Aditya toured with Ravi Shankar as the lead vocalist in Ravi Shankar’s "Festival of India III" ensemble, taking him to the most prestigious venues across the USA, Canada and Europe. Aditya has been performing Carnatic vocal concerts since the age of 13 and has performed solo concerts at prominent venues throughout India and USA such as The Music Academy (Chennai) Ravi Shankar Institute for Music and Performing Arts (New Delhi) and Chicago World Music Festival (Chicago, USA) to name a few. Aditya has also studied Mridangam (South Indian percussion) under Neyveli Narayanan. In 2009, Aditya had the privilege of accompanying sitar virtuoso, Ustaad Shujaat Khan in a jugalbandhi concert. Aditya received his Bachelors in Arts from UCLA in 2007 with a degree in Ethnomusicology (Performance/composition) and a minor in Global Studies. At UCLA, Aditya studied composition under award-winning Jazz musicians. Currently, Aditya composes music for acclaimed-dancer Mythili Prakash’s productions, as well as for collaborative music projects with influences from jazz, Western harmony, North Indian and South Indian classical music. Awards
“Yuva Kala Bharathi”- 2012- Institution: Bharat Kalachar, Chennai
“Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Endowment Award” - 2009- Institution: Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai
"Best Junior Vocalist”- 2008- Institution: Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, Chennai
Hariharan Ravi
Hariharan Ravi, an upcoming Carnatic vocalist from the USA, is a student of Palai Sri C.K. Ramachandran, a prime disciple of legendary Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. He is known for his strict adherence to tradition and classicism. His initial guru was Smt. Poorna Sethuraman of Chicago and subsequently he learnt from Sri B.U.Ganesh Prasad.Hariharan is the title winner of both Jaya TV Carnatic Music Idol USA 2012 and the Cleveland Aradhana's Concert Competition 2012, two of the most prestigious competitions in the USA.He has had the good fortune of being accompanied and appreciated by senior musicians. He has performed in many popular venues and festivals in India, such as Jaya TV Margazhi Mahotsavam, Narada Gana Sabha, Ramjhi’s Issai Mazhalai, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and Vani Mahal, as well as across the US and Europe. Currently, he is an undergraduate studying business at the University Of Pennsylvania Wharton School Of Business.
Delhi P Sunderrajan
Delhi P. Sunder Rajan hails from a family of musicians belonging to the Temple town of Kumbakonam in Thanjavur District. He comes in the lineage of Flute maestro Brahma Sri Saraba Sastrigal. He is a disciple of Sangeetha Bhushanam Sri V. Janakiraman. Sunder Rajan started learning the Violin at the age of six and gave his maiden performance at the age of eight. He was recognised as a child prodigy and has established himself as an artiste of great talent, dedication and creativity.
He has performed solo concerts all over the country and abroad. A an accompanying artiste he plays for all the distinguished musicians.He is now one of the most sought after violinists in the field of Carnatic Music. Sunder Rajan has the rare distinction of winning the Madras Music Academy's prestigious award as the best accompanying violinist for three years in succession. Sunder Rajan has many awards and titles to his credit including the Nadha Brahma Kala Ratnam conferred by the Nadha Brahma Vidyalayam of Delhi. He has been awarded the Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer Trust award for excellence in the field of Violin. He has been appointed the Asthana Vidwan of the Hindu Temple – Dayton – USA and the Hindu temple of Omaha, Nebraska. The Department of Culture, Government of India, has awarded him scholarship for learning violin. All India Radio gave his age exemption and made him a graded artiste of All India Radio, at the age of thirteen.
He is now an 'A' Grade Artiste of All India Radio – Doordharshan. Sunder Rajan is well recognised in the International Music circuit having performed in – USA, Canada, Australia, UK, U.A.E., Czech Republic Solvakia, Poland, Zagreb, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Switzerland and Belgium and Holland. Many music critics in the country have acclaimed sunder Rajan's skill on the Violin.
He has established the 'Venkata Academy of Music and Arts' – as institution for imparting training in the field of Carnatic Music.
RAMAKRISHNAN MURTHY
Starting his early vocal Carnatic Music lessons in 1997 – at the age of 8 – with Smt. Padma Kutty of Irvine, CA, Ramakrishnan, since 2001, has been underdoing advanced training from vidwan Delhi Sri P. Sunderrajan. He was also fortunate to learn, at different times, from senior vidvans Late Vairamangalam Sri Lakshminarayanan, Late Chengalpet Sri Ranganathan, and Palai Sri C.K. Ramachandran. Ramakrishnan has also learned several krithis from C.R. Vaidyanathan (student of P.S. Narayanaswami) and Vaikom T.V. Jayachandran (student of T.M. Thyagarajan).
Some of his awards include Outsanding Junior Vocalist from Music Academy for 2 years consecutively - 2011 and 2012, Chitra Narayanaswamy Endowment for Most Promising Artiste of the year from Brahma Gana Sabha - Season 2012, Spirit of Youth Award for Best Vocalist from the Music Academy 2008, Best Junior Vocalist from Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha - 2008, Maharajapuram Sri Viswanatha Iyer Award for Best Raga Rendering and Musiri Sri Subramania Iyer Endowment Award for Best Vocal Artist from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, 'Sangeetha Shri' title in 2009 from Trichy Rasika Ranjani Sabha, First Prize in the All India Radio National competition in the Classical Vocal – Carnatic category in 2009, Classical Devotional - in year 2007.
Ramakrishnan, an A-grade artist at the All India Radio and Doordarshan, Chennai, has performed widely in India, USA, and the Middle East, in places such as Madras Music Academy, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Shanmukhananda Sangeeta Sabha, and Bangalore Gayana Samaj, and in many cities in the US. He is a Computer Science graduate of the University of California, Irvine.
SRUTI SARATHY
Sruti Sarathy is a disciple of Smt. Anuradha Sridhar, daughter and disciple of Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam. Sruti has performed in cities across the US and in Chennai, and is the recipient of several awards and prizes. In addition to giving vocal concerts, Sruti also performs regularly on the violin, both as a sololist and accompanist, and has accompanied many upcoming musicians. She is a second-year student at Stanford University
shyamala ramakrishna
Born into a musical family, Shyamala exhibited signs of musical talent at a very young age. She started learning Carnatic music formally around the age of four from her mother Rajeswari Satish, who continues to be her primary guru.
Shyamala is fortunate to receive training from eminent musicians Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan and Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy whenever possible. She also receives guidance in laya and various other aspects of music from Sri Ramachandran Suresh of New Jersey.
Shyamala has been performing concerts for the last eight years. She has performed since 2006 in the Chennai December music season concerts. She has performed concerts in the Cleveland Aradhana, CMANA, NJ, and in various organizations all over the USA and the UK.
Shyamala is the recipient of the Carnatic Idol USA (senior) award in 2011, winner of the first place in the concert category of the Cleveland Aradhana competitions, and the winner of the advanced category in the CMANA (NJ) competitions.
Shyamala has had extensive training in Western violin and was first violin at her high school chamber orchestra. She is an active member of model United Nations at her college. Her other interests include singing other genres of music and composing music.
Shyamala is a freshman at Yale University.
srivatsan raghavan
Srivatsan Raghavan, has been learning Carnatic music from a very young age from Guru Tara Anand, an eminent vocalist and violinist in the Boston area. Sriva has always appreciated the Manodharma (improvisation aspect of Carnatic Music) and has won prizes in Cleveland Music Competitions. He gave his debut performance here in 2008 and was also selected by MIT as the next generation Carnatic Musician in 2010. He has had the opportunity of attending workshops conducted by Vidwan Shri RK Shrikantan & TM Krishna. His singing is effortless and yet very deep and emotive which has been appreciated by several renowned artists from India. He has sung many concerts and has helped guide students at the Anubhava school of music under the guidance of his Guru. Sriva is a junior at Northeastern University pursuing his major in Chemistry. As Carnatic Music has been an integral part of his life he wants to continue learning and pursuing this great South Indian Art form and make every effort to grow into a more skilled and involved musician.
VANI RAMAMURTHI
Vani Ramamurthi, a Carnatic Vocalist, is a disciple of Ranjani-Gayatri. She started her initial vocal training at the age of five, under the guidance of Smt. Padma Kutty (Edapally), based in Irvine, California. She also had the opportunity to learn from Late Sri. Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan, while in Chennai during summers. Vani also receives guidance from Sri. Delhi P.Sunder Rajan. Vani shifted from the US to Chennai in 2011 for the sake of pursuing music. She is an “A” grade artist of All India Radio, Chennai. Vani graduated from Cal State University, Fullerton in May 2011, with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology.
Anirudh Venkatesh
Anirudh, age 21, formally began learning Carnatic music from Smt. Padma Kutty in the fall of 1996 shortly after turning 5 years old. He has continued learning with Smt. Padma Kutty but has also had the opportunity to learn from the distinguished gurus Smt. Sugandha Kalamegham and Sri Seetharama Sharma. In 2002, he was initiated into the Semmangudi Bani by Sri Palai C.K. Ramachandran. Since 2005, Anirudh has also been training under the illustrious Padmabhushan Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy. He is currently under the guidance of these two gurus, both of whom are direct disciples of the legendary Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.
Anirudh is a regular performer in many of Chennai's prestigious sabhas during the Chennai December Season festival, and has performed in several other cities in India as well as abroad. Recently, he received the Thanjavur S. Kalyanaraman Endowment Award from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai, for a merit-worthy concert he sang in the sabha's 2011 Gokulashtami Festival Concert Series. He was also featured in the Madras Music Academy's 2012 Spirit of Youth Festival, for which he was awarded "Best Male Vocalist," as well as the Academy's HCL Concert Series in 2013. Anirudh is now doing his Masters degree at Stanford University, where he is studying Computer Science.
Ashwin Srikanth
Ashwin Srikant is a Senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, CA. Ashwin started learning music at the age of 4 from Sri. Mohan Ayyar and Smt. Sangeetha Ayyar in Sydney. In the US, Ashwin continued his music education under Smt. Hema Sista, disciple of Dr. M.L.Vasanthakumari and founder of the Sangithalaya School of Music. Currently, he learns from Smt. Charumathi Ramachandran, the senior most disciple of Dr. MLV. Ashwin has participated and won several awards at the prestigious Cleveland Aradhana including the Advanced Pallavi and the Concert Competition. He has also performed in various venues around the Bay Area, North Carolina, Sydney, Australia and in the 2012 Chennai Music Festival.
G K Manamohan
Manamohan hails from the heritage city ‘Mysore’, Karnataka - India. At the age of three, Manamohan started showing innate musical gift with a keen ear for music, by recognizing few ragas and penchant for rhythm. This made his parents to foster the god given talent. At the age of five, Manamohan started learning Karnatic Vocal. Started learning under guru Vidushi Smt. H. N. Rajalakshmi (w/o Vidwan H. K. Narasimhamurthy, Violinist) and pursued further from gurus Vidushi Smt. Vasanta Sundararajan and Vidushi Smt. Pushpa Srinivasan in Mysore. At the age of seven he started learning Karnatic Mandolin under Vidwan Sri. A. V. Dattatreya and pursued further from Vidwan Sri. C. Vishwanath and Vidwan Sri. H. K. Narasimhamurthy (Violinist) in Mysore. Immensely influenced by vocal, later on, he ardently pursued Karnatic vocal. Manamohan has a Bachelor’s degree (BE) in ‘Environmental Engineering’ and a Master’s degree (MS) in ‘Environmental Science – Hazardous & Waste Materials Management’. Since 2007, he has been working at University of California, Los Angeles – UCLA as an ‘Environment, Health & Safety’ professional.
Music Career Highlights
First Prize at the National Level All India Radio (AIR) Competition - Karnatic Devotional, 2002.
Recipient of National Scholarship for Karnatic Vocal. (Center for Cultural Resources & Training – CCRT, 1992 - 2002)
Recipient of State Scholarship for Carnatic Vocal. (Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya Academy – SNA, for three consecutive years)
Won several first prizes in music competitions held at prestigious organizations. Also won First prizes in concert competitions. To mention a few: Ganabharati, Mysore Music Association, J.S.S Mysore, Rama Seva Mandali-North, Nadasudha - Shimoga.
Was invited as a guest faculty at "Meadows School of Arts - Music", Southern Methodist University - Dallas, Texas 2006.
He has composed and directed fusion ensemble pieces in the likes of ‘Soul on the Strings’ in Raga - Vakulabharana and ‘Wavering Beauty’ in Raga -Keeravani which have been appreciated by a wide range of audience. He has been featured in the programs of All India Radio (AIR) – Mysore, on numerous occasions since the age of seven.
MURALI PAVITHRAN
Murali Pavithran hails from a family of musicians. He started his violin lessons at the age of 9 from Smt. Poosarla Manorama (grand daughter of Violin Wizard Dwaram Venkatswamy Naidu) and later came under the tutelage of Sri. Peri Sri Rama Murthy. He obtained his certificate(4 years) and diploma degree(+2 years) with honors distinction in violin in 1996 from Sri. Bhaktha Ramadas Govt. College of Music and Dance, Hyderabad. He has participated in a variety of competitions at the state level and won numerous prizes, the salient of which is 1st prize in Kalasagaram 3 years in a row. He is also the recipient of the Govt. of India scholarship for excellence in music (Violin) for 7 years from 1993-2000. He has learnt vocal music from Mahamahopadhyaya Sri. Kollegal R Subramanyam (Hyderabad) and Smt. T R Balamani (Mumbai). He has performed in concerts in India, UK and the US both on violin and vocal - most recently at Shanmukhananda Sangeetha sabha and Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. Murali received the Best Violinist Award from Parthasarathy Swami Sabha during the most recent music season in Chennai. Most recently, he has performed in the chennai music season in both vocal and violin at sabhas such as Hamsadhwani, Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Kartik Fine Arts, Kapali Fine Arts, Nada Inbam, Sannidhi Academy. In the US, he has performed in LA, bay area (Swara Lahari), Seattle, Phoenix, Sacramento and several other cities in the recent past.
Apart from carnatic classical music, Murali has also won numerous prizes in Semi classical, light, western classical, fusion vocal and instrumental music at IIT Bombay. He was also the music director for 3 years at the theatrical productions at the Performing Arts Festival in IIT and he was a founding member of the fusion band in IIT. He is currently a student of Isai Peroli Shri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan in vocal. He holds a sound engineering diploma and composes music in classical and contemporary genres. Murali is a graduate of IIT Bombay and UCLA and lives in Los Angeles, California, USA working as a Director - Business Analytics.
Srinivas Balaji
Srinivas Balaji began learning Carnatic music at the age of 10 from Smt. Padma Kutty in Irvine, and has continued to do so since. He has also learned from Sri Delhi Sunderrajan for several years now. Upon joining UCLA in 2009, Srinivas also began learning under Sri Gopalachar Manamohan. He has also learnt songs from Sri Palai Ramachandran and Smt. Sangeetha Sivakumar. Srinivas has just finished his bachelors degree at UCLA.
Varun Ganesan
Varun's informal music initiation began at a very early age through listening and he exhibited the ability to recognize ragas at a very young age. Under the auspices of Perambur Sangeetha Sabha in Chennai, Varun gave a performance of raga recognition on Jan 26, 1995 (age of 2). Varun's formal music education began in Oct 1997 under the guidance of Smt. Vani Sateesh, New Jersey.
Varun's present gurus are A.S. Murali (Chennai), Sangeetha Kala Acharya Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy (Chennai) and Ashvin Bhogendra (NJ). He also receives advanced training from Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan. Varun is a member of the Yuva Sangeetha Lahari (YSL), a group of young students of Carnatic music, born and raised in the United States, passionate about this art form. Since 2008, he has been receiving advanvced manodharma training from the YSL music teachers . Varun has performed several concerts across the U.S. and in teh prestigious Chennai music season in 2012, 2009 and 2008. In Mar 2011, Varun gave a full length concert under the auspices of Karnatic and Hindustani Music Circles (KHMC) in Boston, Massachusetts. A review of this concert included the following excerpts: “Varun Ganesan kept the room enthralled for a full 2 hours with his innovative, energetic and exemplary performance. Varun seems to have created his own style of singing, characterized by innovation and high energy – even while staying true to the classics.” Varun won the 2009 Concert Competition at the Cleveland Thygaraja Aradhana and the CMANA Junior Musician Award in 2008 for winning the Advanced Competition in CMANA's Great Composer's Day. He was the first runner up in the 2012 Carnatic Music Idol USA competition. He also won several prizes for Alapana, Neraval, Swaram and Krithi competitions in the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana from 2004 to 2008.
Varun is a Senior at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is specializing in Mathematics and Computer Science.
VIVEK THYAGARAJAN
Vivek started learning vocal carnatic music at a young age in Madras from Vidhushi K R Vasantha, a disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Shree T M Thyagarajan. After shifting to Bombay, he continued his training under Vidhushi Kalyani Sharma, a disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Shree K S Narayanaswamy and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Shree Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. He has also undertaken short summer training sessions under a few senior most gurus in Madras. He has won a number of prizes from Cleveland Festival, Shankukhananda, Bombay and leading sabhas in Madras. Vivek is a B S Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and is currently working in Westlake Village.