Program Schedule:
9:00 AM: Member Breakfast and Quorum Count
10:00 AM: Annual General Body Meeting (Members only) 
11:45 AM: Elections to 2023-2024 Board (Members only) 
12:00 Noon:  Lunch (Free for everyone)
1:00 PM: Bala Bhavam (Saxophone) performance by Vinay Konda & party.

Vinay Konda (Saxophone)

Vinay Konda began music training at 8, focusing on Carnatic saxophone from age 11 under Dr. Sumanth Swaminathan and eventually studied under Padmashree Dr. Kadri Gopalnath in 2016. He has also learned Carnatic vocal music with Sri Ashvin Bhogendra and Sri D Raghavachari. Vinay has given several performances at temples for Indian cultural organizations such as Sruti, TFAS-NJ, AIM, etc. A graduate in computer engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he now works as a software engineer in Boston.

Swetha Narasimhan (Violin)

Swetha Narasimhan is a senior student of Late Smt. Gowri Ramakrishnan, from whom she was privileged to learn for 16 years. Swetha started learning violin at the age of 6 from Dr. Narayan Raman in Indianapolis, and was taught by several violinists, including Shri. Purnachander Rao, Trichy Shri. Sathyamurthy, and Smt. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. In high school, she won first prizes in competitions hosted by CMANA and the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, and she now enjoys playing for Carnatic vocal, instrumental, Bharathanatyam, and Kuchipudi programs around the country and in India. Swetha holds a degree in mathematics from Bryn Mawr College, and a master’s in education from the University of Pennsylvania. After working as a high school teacher in Philadelphia for several years, Swetha now works to support the growth and development of public school educators in Philadelphia.

Vignesh Prakash (Mridangam)

Vignesh Prakash is a trained multi-instrument percussionist with a comprehensive background in live and recorded performances.  He has been learning and playing Indian and Western Percussion (Drums, Mridangam and Ghatam) for the last 12+ years. He is a disciple of Guru Shri T.S. Nandakumar – a well-known Indian versatile carnatic music percussionist. Vignesh has been performing as a soloist and as a mridangam accompanist for many concerts across the tri-state area. He has earned multiple 1st prize awards for playing Western and Indian Percussion. Vignesh is a gold star rated NJ state level percussion player and was awarded the “Most Impressive Musician” label in the NJ State Art Festival 2021/22 for playing Ghatam & Mridangam. Vignesh is an all-state CJMEA percussionist ranked fourth among all of New Jersey and a featured percussionist instrumentalist for the IndianRaga music ensembles. He won the first prize as a category winner for Indian Percussion (Mridangam) at Art&Beat and was awarded a prize by Padma Shree Dr L. Subramaniam and Mrs Kavitha Krishnamurthy. Vignesh is lead drummer with professional bands in New Jersey and the local tri-state area including Jwala, Iyerish Cocktail, and Holiday Percussion.Recently, he did his mridangam arangetram in 2022, where he accompanied world renowned violinist, Padma Shri A. Kanyakumari with other seasoned artists. Currently, Vignesh is a sophomore at New Jersey Institute of Technology majoring in Financial Technology and Applied Statistics.