Sruti is pleased to kick start the Spring 2025 season with our customary Thyagaraja Aradhana.

Practice Details
Rehearsal dates for Utsava sampradaya kritis and pancharatna kritis for 2025:

Venue:
Chinmaya Sudarshan,
1201 N. Chester Road,
West Chester
PA 19380

Rehearsal dates:
February 1
March 8
March 15
Timing – 2 pm to 5 pm

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For a full year sponsorship (season pass) covering premium tickets for all events, please visit the Membership page at https://www.sruti.org/membership/sponsorship-information/

Flute Concert By Heramb Hemanth

Mridangam : Thanjavur Muruga Boopathi Ghatam : Guruprasad

Heramb Hemanth – Carnatic Flute Duo
Heramb Hemanth, the twin brothers, affectionately called as the Flute
Brothers, are two of the most sought after flautists and the only twin flute duo in
the carnatic music scenario today. Hailing from a family full of musicians and scholars,
they were naturally exposed to music right since they were born. They are the
grandsons of ‘Bhakthi Sangeetha Ratna’ Sri Ambale Subbarao, an esteemed musician,
cultural personality, writer and guru. Their father, Sri Ambale Satyaprasad is a
mridangam artist and their aunt, Ambale Rajeshwari is a popular Bharatanatyam
exponent and Guru.
At the age of 3, they began their initial training in vocal music from their aunt,
Smt Bharathi Shyamanna and started learning carnatic flute at the age of 6 under Sri
Mysore AV Prakash. They are currently under the tutelage of Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sri
Neyveli Santhanagopalan. They hold Bachelor’s degree in Information Science &
Engineering from Jyothy Institute of Technology, Bangalore.
Heramb Hemanth have developed a unique, refined fingering and blowing
technique, which enables them to switch between wide range of flutes, including the
difficult bass and double-bass flutes. The duo is well appreciated for their innovative
approach, perfect synchronization, shruthi shuddham (perfect pitching) and tonal
quality. Their music naturally demonstrates depth and proximity to the lyrical aspect
of composition, representing the ‘gayaki style’ of music. The brothers have been
creating a new dimension to the art of playing carnatic classical flute duets and have
been an inspiration for many upcoming and aspiring musicians.
Being one of youngest recipients of ‘A’ grade by All India Radio (age of 18),
they have performed in various prestigious organizations and festivals in the country
and abroad, accompanied by legendary musicians including Padmavibhushan Sri
Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Padmashri Yella Venkateshwara Rao and many more. They
are the first flautists to introduce harmony, a western conceptualization into the
‘Thanam’ segment of carnatic music. Their music has been appreciated by musicians,

scholars, critics, connoisseurs, rasikas and laymen alike. They also are much sought-
after Gurus, training more than 100 students all over the globe.

Vidwan Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi (Boopathi) is one of the world’s most celebrated
mridangam players of today. His techniques and creative ability in accompaniment, solo
renditions, and jugalbandhi programs with his North Indian brethren have earned him much
acclaim around the world.

Murugaboopathi hails from a family of musicians and artists of several generations. He is one of
the few performers in the world today who trained in the rare ‘Gurukula’ method (living with
one’s guru while learning) with Mridangam maestro Guru Tanjore Upendran for over ten years.
Boopathi initially trained under Shri T R Srinivasan from the Tamil Nadu Music College,
Chennai before his gurukula training.

Murugaboopathi’s percussion career has been a colorful spectrum of accompaniment to a legion
of maestros and virtuosos of the world of Carnatic vocal and instrumental music. Prominent
vocalists include Sri M Balamuralikrishna, Sri T V Sankaranarayanan, Madurai Sri T N
Seshagopalan, Sri P S Narayanaswami, Sri Sanjay Subramanyam, Sri P Unnikrishnan, Sri T M
Krishna, Carnatica Brothers, Smt Sudha Raghunathan, Smt Aruna Sairam, and Smt Nithyashree
Mahadevan. Renowned instrumentalists include flautist Dr N Ramani, mandolin player Sri U
Srinivas, saxophonist Sri Kadri Gopalnath, violinist brothers Sri Ganesh & Sri Kumaresh and
Mysore Sri Nagaraj & Sri Manjunath, vainika Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar, and flautist Sri Shashank.
In addition, he has collaborated with several Hindustani (North Indian) musicians in Jugalbandi
concerts, including Ustad Sultan Khan, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, Pandit Viswa Mohan Bhaatt,
Pandit Ronu Majumdar, Sri Gaurav Mazumdar, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Pandit Ramdas
Palsule, Pandit Abhijit Chatterjee and others. Boopathi has also played with several Western and
other world musicians to create multifaceted music and foster cultural understanding.

Murugaboopathi’s concert performances have occurred at a wide array of prestigious venues in
India. Around the world, he has also performed in the United Nations (New York), the Royal
Albert Hall (London), Theater De La Ville (Paris), Public Broadcasting Service Studios (USA),
Esplanade Bay Theatres (Singapore) and numerous other venues in USA, Europe, Australia,
New Zealand, the Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa. He is one of the first
Carnatic musicians in history to perform in the international music scene of Turkey, with veena
artiste Smt Nirmala Rajasekar in 2011 at the Konya Mystic Music Festival.

Guruprasad is the son of ghatam vidwan Shri K. Nagaraja Rao and Smt Kallammal. He had his initial training under his father and later underwent gurukulam under ghatam maestro Shri T.H. Vikku Vinayakram. Subsequently he received training from ghatam vidwan Shri V. Suresh, and mrudangam vidwan “Laya Chudaroli” Madurai Shri T. Srinivasan. He regularly accompanies the senior most artists in the field of Carnatic Music, and is highly sought after in the film industry as well as for collaborations with world renowned artists of various genres. Guruprasad has had the privilege of playing alongside stalwarts of percussion such as Shri Palghat Raghu, Shri T.K. Moorthy, Shri Vellore Ramabhadhran, Shri Umayalpuram K Sivaraman, Shri Karaikudi Mani, Shri Trichy Sankaran, Shri Haridwarmangalam A.K. Palanivel, Shri Kaliyamoorthy, and Shri Thanjavur Govindarajan, to name a few.

He is honored to have performed in esteemed global venues such as The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., The Lincoln Center in New York City, the “Incredible India” festival at The Oval Cricket Ground in London, and along with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in South Africa. Guruprasad has been bestowed with numerous awards and titles, some of which include the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from Sangeet Natak Akademi – New Delhi, the title of “Aasthaana Vidwan” of Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt – Kanchipuram, and the Kalki Krishnamurthy award in Chennai. Guruprasad continues to perform around the world, and is now training many ghatam artists of the next generation.