Upcoming Program

Date:

Sunday, February 24th 2008

Time:

2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Location:

Sanathana Dharma Kendra

Address:

897 Kifer Road, Suite 1, (inside RTS Building Complex), Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Phone:

(408) 481-9242

Map :

Map of 897 Kifer Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086-5205

These are free events. All are welcome.
Please feel free to spread this message to your friends and relatives.

Junior Concert:	2.00 PM - 2.45 PM	Mani Desikan (Vocal) Narasimhan (Violin) Balaji Mahadevan (Mridangam)
Senior Concert:	3.00 PM - 5.00 PM	Chandrika Pai (Vocal) Karthik Lakshminarayanan (Violin) Karthik Gopalratnam (Mridangam)

Mani Desikan (Vocal)

Mani Desikan aka Desik is an ardent Carnatic music rasika. His formal training in Carnatic music during childhood included several breaks for various reasons until he started training under Smt. Rama Thyagarajan six years ago. He has been learning from Smt. Rama since 2001 and has participated in several music festivals and events in the Bay area including Deepavali celebrations at Oracle and Mostly Tamil's Vaanampadi 2003. Mani enjoys listening to a lot of Carnatic music and reading reviews.

Narasimhan (Violin)

Mr. Narasimhan learnt violin from Sri H.K. Venkatram (disciple of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman) in Shimoga for about a year and later on from Sri H.K. Narasimha Murthy for about 6-7 years in Mysore. He has played for many concerts in the bay area. Mr. Narasimhan works as a Mechanical/Thermal Engineer for Cisco Systems in San Jose CA.

Balaji Mahadevan (Mridangam)

Balaji Mahadevan has been playing Mridhangam since age 12. His initial training was from Shri K.S.S.Mani (Chennai) for 8 years. He continued to learn from Shri Madhu Sudhanan, Chennai (disciple of Shri Karikudi Mani). Balaji has accompanied many leading artists in chennai and in US and has also played for many cassette / CD recordings and TV shows and he has been accompanying for various dance arangetrams and dance ballets. Balaji Mahadevan is a graded artist from All India radio, Chennai. He is also skilled in playing Tabla, Dhol, Thavil and khol.

Chandrika Pai (Vocal)

Chandrika started her formal musical training at the age of five under Sangeeta Vidhwan N. Gopalakrishna Iyer in Mangalore and received vocal lessons for 16 years. During this time, she also received intensive vocal training from her sister Sudha Suresh who is an accomplished Carnatic vocalist in her own right. She is also fortunate to have received vocal lessons from Sangeetha Kalacharya Sri Chengleput Ranganathan in Chennai. At the tender age of 11, she secured first rank in the state-wide Carnatic Vocal Junior exam obtaining a perfect score of 100%. Later, she passed her Senior and Vidhwat examinations with distinction honors. In 1997, she was placed second in the very prestigious national level competition conducted by All India Radio (AIR). Since then, she has been a graded artiste of AIR, Mangalore. She has also received state and central government scholarships in recognition of her immense talent and creativity. She has given numerous concerts all over South India traveling extensively in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and also in the US.

Karthik Lakshminarayanan (Violin)

Karthik Lakshminarayanan has been an aspiring musician since a very young age. After learning basics from Smt. Sivakami Narayanan, Karthik underwent further training in violin from Smt. Radha Narayanan. Recently, he has received advanced training from Sri. Mullaivasal Chandramouli. For the past five years, Karthik has been fortunate to receive expert guidance from veteran Vidushi Smt. Suguna Purushothaman. Karthik received his PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2007.

Karthik Gopalratnam (Mridangam)

Karthik started learning the art of playing the Mridangam at the age of 9 in Bangalore, India. His Guru is the renowned Vidwan Sri H. S. Sudhindra, a respected teacher and prominent artiste in Bangalore, and a prime disciple of Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao, one of the foremost exponents of the art. Karthik has also learnt vocal Carnatic music from his mother Smt. Girija Gopalratnam, and Vidushi Smt. Neela Ramagopal of Bangalore. Karthik has given numerous Mridangam performances in Bangalore and the Bay Area, as well as in Seattle, where he was privileged to come under the guidance of Vidushi Smt. Sreevidhya Chandramouli, a renowned Veena artiste and descendant of the illustrious Karaikudi Veenai tradition. Vidushi Sreevidhya's artistic and aesthetic guidance have been instrumental in moulding Karthik's growth as a musician - both as a Mridangist as well as a vocalist.

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