LOTUS January Monthly Concert 2015

DATE: SATURDAY, JANUARY 24TH, 2015

TIME: 1.30 PM TO 5.00 PM

VENUE: SANATHANA DHARMA KENDRA

193 Commercial St,

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Phone: (408) 481-9242

Google Map

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

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Concert #1 - Junior 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM

Meera Bharat (Vocal)

Keshavan Srivatsan (Violin)

Akshay Venkatesan (Mrudangam)

Concert #2 - Intermediate 2:30 PM - 3:45 PM

Sahana Prasanna (Vocal)

Sruthi Sarathy (Violin)

Vignesh Venkatraman (Mridangam)

Concert #3 - Junior 4:00 PM - 4:45 PM

Varsha Satheesh (vocal)

Aparana Thyagarajan (Violin)

Ajay Gopi (Mridangam)

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Meera Bharat (Vocal)

Meera began her Carnatic music instruction at the age of 6 under the able guidance of Smt. Purnima Krishnamurthy. She continues her training now under Sri. Vivek Sundararaman and Sri. Hari Devnath of Sri Paduka Academy. She has performed at solo and group events in many of the Bay Area events. She particularly enjoys listening to many kutcheris of stalwarts such as Smt. MSS, Sri. KVN, Sri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan, and S. Sowmya. Meera is an advanced piano student and plays soccer for the Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club. She also enjoys sketching, reading, and running in her free time. Meera is an 8th grader at Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto.

Keshavan Srivatsan (Violin)

Keshavan Narayanan Srivatsan is a Carnatic vocalist and violinist, belonging to the Legendary Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar & Palghat K.V. Narayanaswamy Lineage. He has been training in vocal music under his parents Smt. Subhapriya K. Srivatsan and Hemmige Sri V. Srivatsan since a very young age and continues to train on the violin with his father. Keshavan has also had the rare privilege of learning with illustrious musicians such as Vidushi Smt. Padma Narayanaswamy (his Parama-guru-pathni), Vidushi Smt. Jayalakshmi Santhanam and Vidwan Sri R.K. Shriramkumar. Keshavan is an 8th grader at Rolling Hills Middle School, Los Gatos.

Akshay Venkatesan (Mrudangam)

Akshay Venkatesan started learning mridangam at Sarvalghu Percussion Art Center, San Jose, CA at the age of 5 under the able guidance of `Laya Kala Ratna’ Sri Ramesh Srinivasan, a leading disciple of Mridangam Maestro Late Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Vellore G. Ramabhadran. He is in 8th grade at Chaboya middle school. Akshay had his mridangam arangetram on January 03, 2013 at Tattvaloka, Chennai. He was blessed to accompany Sri. Chitravina N. Ravikiran on Chitravina, Dr. Karthick on Ghatam and Kum. Akkarai Subhalakshmi on Violin. He was blessed with having Dr. Balamuralikrishna as Distinguished Guest of Honor and Sri. N. Gopalaswami as Chief Guest. Akshay has accompanied on mridangam in April 2011 Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana `Sustaining Sampradaya Concert’ and Carnatic Symphony in 2013 and 2014, Papanasam Sivan and CCC concert in 2014. He also accompanied Carnatic Idol group winners’ concert in Cleveland in 2014. Akshay has been accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists in Bay area for the last four years. In addition, Akshay accompanied in many Sabhas in the December music season in Chennai in 2013 for various vocal and instrumentalists. Also, Akshay learns vocal Carnatic music and is a student of Sri Paduka Academy. His other activities include playing tennis and basketball as well as saxophone in his school band.

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Sahana Prasanna (Vocal)

Sahana Prasanna has been learning Carnatic music since age 5. She is a student of Smt. Vasudha Ravi for the past 4 years. Sahana is an active participant in Bay Area carnatic music events and has given many concerts. She has won many prizes in several music competitions in both USA and in India. She takes private western violin classes and has recently started Carnatic violin with Sri. Kartik Lakshminarayanan.

She is an avid reader, loves all sports and is a 7th grader at Kennedy Middle School, Cupertino.

Sruthi Sarathy (Violin)

Sruti Sarathy, equally talented in vocal and violin, hails from the Lalgudi bani. She is a student of Smt. Anuradha Sridhar, daughter and disciple of Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam. Sruti is a graded artiste of All India Radio, Chennai. She won the “Best Violinist” award at the 2012 Spirit of Youth festival conducted by the Madras Music Academy. She has performed extensively in Chennai and in the USA. Sruti is a junior at Stanford university.

Vignesh Venkatraman (Mrudangam)

Vignesh Venkataraman, a senior at Stanford University, is a mridangam artist hailing from Umayalpuram Sri. K. Sivaraman’s school of music. Vignesh was initiated into playing mridangam by Sri. Anand Iyer, also from the same school. Over a period of 5 years, Vignesh traveled to India every summer to undergo advanced training under the tutelage of Umayalpuram Sri. K. Sivaraman. Vignesh has accompanied various artists, including some senior musicians, in concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area and in India. He has participated in competitions at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana and has won several prizes there. He won the Best Mridangist award at the Spirit of Youth festival held by the Madras Music Academy in 2013.

Vignesh is also learning vocal carnatic music from Smt. Meena Kothandaraman, a disciple of Sri. M.S. Anantharaman, and more recently from violinist Sri. R.K. Shriramkumar.

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Varsha Satheesh (Vocal)

Varsha has been learning Carnatic music since she was four years old. Her first guru was Smt. Purnima Krishnamurthy. She learnt the basics from her mother Kavitha Satheesh and joined Ganamandir Fine Arts under guru Smt. Padmaja Kishore. Varsha has been learning under the guidance of Smt Padmaja Kishore over 5 years. She has performed at various bay area venues for different occasions such as Thyagaraja festival, Purandra Dasa day, Papanasam Sivan day, OSAAT etc.

Varsha is also learning Indian Classical dance, Bharatnatyam, from guru Smt.Sugnadha Iyer and working towards her arangetram.

Varsha is a freshman at Monta Vista High in Cupertino. She was part of her elementary and middle school band group where she played trumpet and violin and currently part of the Choir group in Monta Vista. She is a competitive swimmer at DACA swim center and an active member of Speech and Debate Club in Monta Vista High.

Aparana Thyagarajan (Violin)

Aparna Thyagarajan is a disciple of her uncle Delhi Shri.p. sunderrajan. Aparna started learning violin at the age of 10. Aparna regularly accompanies bay area music schools and CCC.

Ajay Gopi (Mridangam)

Ajay Gopi is a junior (11th grader) at Irvington High School. He has been learning mridangam since 5th grade from his father Sri. Gopi Lakshminarayanan. He also receives additional training from Sri. Kallidaikurichi Sivakumar. Ajay had his arangetram on July 2013 with Sri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan. He has performed in many prestigious sabhas in Chennai such as Krishna Gana Sabha, Indian Fine Arts, etc. during the 2013 and 2014 December music season. Ajay has won 1st prize in many competitions at regional, national and international levels. He accompanies various senior and junior artists on regular basis on live/recorded events.

He also learns vocal music from Sri. Padhuka Academy, Neyveli Gurukulum. Ajay plays tennis for his high school team.