Thyagaraja Aradhana Souvenir (PDF)

1.30pm Concert live stream (YouTube)

Concert and Individual Participation

Registration and Covid Guidelines

This event will adhere to CDC guidelines.

Registration for individual singing will open on Sunday February 13th at 9 am. Please sign up for Sruti sponsorship to get priority for individual participation.

Thyagaraja Aradhana Registration (Closed)

Schedule:

8:30 am – Pooja
9:00 am – Individual participation
12 noon – Lunch
1:15 pm – Board Introduction
1:30 pm – Full-length concert by Vidushi Vani Ramamurthi (student of Ranjani and Gayathri). Accompanists:
Violin- Rajeev Mukundan
Mridangam- Keerthi Venkataramani

3:30 pm – Individual participation continues
6:30 pm – Mangalam and Aarathi

Vani Ramamurthi Bio

Vani Ramamurthi, an emerging Carnatic Musician is a disciple of renowned vocalists Ranjani-Gayatri. Born and brought up in the US, she started her initial vocal training at the age of five under the guidance of Smt. Padma Kutty, based in Irvine, California. Vani made annual trips to Chennai throughout her childhood for advanced training with her Gurus Smt. Ranjani and Smt. Gayatri. She is also under the guidance of Sri Delhi P Sunder Rajan.

She lived in Chennai from 2011-2019 to actively pursue Carnatic music. She has performed at several well known sabhas in India. Vani is the winner of Kalavanta 2015, a prestigious national youth music festival held in Bangalore. She won the “Rising Stars” award from Shanmukhananda Sabha, Mumbai in 2018. Vani is an ‘A’ grade artist of All India Radio, Chennai. She currently resides in Southern California and enjoys teaching Carnatic vocal music to many students within North America, Europe, and India.

Rajeev Mukundan Bio

Rajeev Mukundan was initiated into Carnatic Violin at a very young age. He initially learnt from Sri N.Govindarajan and currently, he is under the tutelage of the legendary Sangeeta Kalanidhi A.Kanyakumari for over a decade. He is an A-grade artiste of the All India Radio. Rajeev has travelled extensively on concerts, both in India and abroad. He has toured and accompanied almost all the leading carnatic musicians and has been part of many unique musical collaborations. Rajeev also works full time as a Video Game Engineer in Pittsburgh, PA.

Keerthi Venkataramani Bio

Keerthi Venkataramani has been learning mridangam since the age of 5, initially under Dr. Ramachandran Suresh of New Jersey. He has been receiving advanced training from his esteemed guru Vidwan Melakaveri Sri K. Balaji since 2009. He has been performing extensively in several locations across the United States and India. He has had the privilege of accompanying leading artistes such as Sri D Seshachary, Kunnakudi Sri Balamuralikrishna, Sri Nagai Muralidharan, Sri Nagai Sriram, Sri Vittal Ramamurthy, Sri Sankaran Namboothiri, Chitravina Sri Ganesh, Sri Bharat Sundar, as well as his grandmother Professor R. Subbalekshmi, and mother, Kalyani Ramani, on several occasions. Thanks to the blessings of his Gurus and elders, Keerthi is sought after as a mridangist by multiple cultural organizations across the United States as well as by performing artists (local and from overseas). Keerthi currently works as a software development engineer at Capital One.

Concert Review

Vani Ramamurthy – Thyagaraja Aradhana Concert

By Dinakar Subramanian

Violin – Rajeev Mukundan; Mridangam – Keerthi Venkataramani

Sruti presented Vani Ramamurthy, a US based artist for the Thyagaraja Aradhana featured concert on March 26, 2022 at the Delaware temple in Hockessin. This was the first in-person concert for 2022 as part of the two-part Thyagaraja Aradhana celebration by Sruti. 

Vani started with a soulful – nannu brOva nIkinta in AbhOgi. She seemed tentative with her kalpanaswarams displaying a bit of nervousness. A rAgA exposition in sAveri followed that still showed a bit of nerves and the kriti – balamu kulamu was well rendered. Vani then started the kalyANi kriti – amma rAvammA without any AlapanA with the neraval at the common caraNam phrase – tAmarasa daLa nEtri. The tArasthAyi notes of the neraval could have been sung a bit crisper and exposed a bit of sruti misalignment. The kalpanaswarams were ably presented with Rajeev Mukundan providing excellent support. A calming nIlAmbari – nIkE daya rAka was sung with a measured speed and azhuttham giving the kriti and the rAgam its due. This was followed by the varaLi kriti – karuNayElAgaNTE.

Tanayuni brOva in bhairavi was the main piece of the concert. The rAga improvisation was brilliant in parts. Rajeev’s bhairavi was solid and gave a sense of listening stability to me compared to Vani’s AlapanA. The kalpanaswarams for this piece were very meticulously done and in my opinion was where Vani shone the best in the whole concert. A competent tani by Keerthi rounded out the elaborate piece.

Being the occasion of Thyagaraja Aradhana and keeping with the spirit of rendering Utsava sampradaya kritis, Vani melodiously rendered all 4 caraNams of SObhanE in pantuvarALi with great evocative feeling and lovely sancarAs. The concert ended with a lively kamalApta kula in bRndAvanasAranga. Overall, a good concert for the occasion and I hope that Vani gets to showcase her talent on the Sruti stage in the future.

Dinakar Subramanian is a long-time Sruti supporter living in Audubon, PA.