Kalyanpuram S Aravind is one of the most sought after carnatic vocalists of his generation of musicians. Aravind belongs to a family of rich cultural and vedic heritage which includes senior Harikatha Exponent ‘Kalaimamani’ Kalyanapuram Sri R Aravamudachariar and Kalyanapuram Sri R Veeraraghavachariar who are his paternal uncles.

He began his formal training in Carnatic at the age of 4 from Smt. Sudha Seshagopalan (Wife of Sri TNS). He continued his training under Sri S Kasthuri Rangan, a senior disciple of Sri TN Seshagopalan. Aravind now is being shaped and chiselled by none other than the Living Legend Padmabhushan Sangeetha Kalanidhi Madurai Sri TN Seshagopalan for the past 25 plus years.

Aravind has created his own stamp by rendering uniquely styled raga alapanas and neravals along with bhava laden renditions of viruthams as a part of his concerts. He has been bestowed with many awards and recognitions by premiere institutions in India. He has travelled to different parts of the globe representing theIndian Carnatic music fraternity and has been instrumental in spreading the art of Carnatic music amongst the overseas rasikas.

H.N. Bhaskar (HNB) is the son of HKN Murthy. He was only 3 years old when I became disciple of my teacher HKN. He was present at the time when my vocal teacher T. R. Srinivasan introduced me to my guru in the April of 1980. He already had a very well developed sense of shruti. I remember vividly, his presence during my practice in the morning hours of those early years. Holding a small violin fit for his size, he used to sit with me and valiantly attempt advance scales (or sathakas) and quite frequently pull it off. As he grew past 7 years, he was a regular practice mate, and this continued for the next 15 years whenever I was in town. I distinctly remember one morning when he was 9 years old, we played Mandari Varnam 25 times without let up, to Bhaskar’s mother’s (Rajalakshmi madam) tala. HKN, one of the gentlest among people I know, had a slightly different side to him, with those students who he thought had genuine musical talent and will go somewhere. He was very strict about standards without wearing it on his lapels. I was one of those chosen ones who got it from my teacher often, but the toughest treatment was reserved for his son HNB. I never once remember HNB, a model child in many ways, responding back.

After many years of advance training under his father, he left Mysore to study with MSG. HNB made rapid strides and has gone on to become one of the top violinists of his generation in all aspects of violin playing; accompaniment, solo and experimentation in new genre. I have heard MSG tell me on more than one occasion “what a brilliant violinist HNB is”.

He has won top prizes several times at the Madras Music Academy, once fittingly, Parur Sundaram Iyer Prize for best violin accompaniment. He was recently awarded the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar by the Sangeet Natak Academy.

A much sought after violinist, he has accompanied many of the major figures in Carnatic music. Just last year he has accompanied some of them at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Sydney Opera House.

Purnaprajna Bangere
Kansas City, March 2015

Delhi Sri Sairam is a disciple of Mridangam Maestro Sangitha Kalanidhi Dr. Thiruvarur Sri Bakthavatsalam. He is apost graduate First Rank holder in Rhythmology from the University of Madras. He has also won several awardslike the ‘Kalaimamani’ by the government of TamilNadu, ‘Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar’ from the Sangeet NatakAkademi, ‘Yuva Kala Bharathi’ from Bharat Kalachar, ‘Best senior mridangist’ award from The Music Academy,Chennai, ‘Laya Lavanya Trust Award’ from Padmabhushan Umayalapuram Sri Sivaraman to name a few.

His energetic yet sensitive style of accompanying vocalists and instrumentalist alike has won him critical acclaim allover India and abroad. During the past 20yrs he has given thousands of performances accompanying eminent seniorartists and promising and upcoming musicians. He has accompanied veterans like Flute Ramani, T.V.Sankaranarayanan, Bombay Jayashri Ramnath, Ranjani Gayathri, Sudha Raghunathan and many senior artists. He has toured the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Abhudhabi with several artists and performed at prestigiousinternational festivals and venues.

He has had the good fortune of sharing stage alongside his guru on a few occasions, one such being the GuruShishya Parampara series under the auspices of the Delhi international arts festival, India international centre. He has been part of various jugalbandhis and rhythmic ensemble concerts. He has been a teacher par excellence imparting students the art of mridangam accompaniment for the past 2 decades. He is also a visiting faculty of the Kalaikovil Academy of Fine Arts in Toronto, Canada for the past 14 years. He has the credit of training over 40 students for their arangetram (maiden performance) in Canada and India.