LOTUS March 2016 concerts

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All are welcome to attend these free concerts. Please feel free to spread this message to your friends and relatives.

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

Shravanti Shankar (vocal)

Aparna Thyagarajan (Violin)

Amit Ranganathan (Mrudangam)

Concert #2 - Junior 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM

Ragav Narasimhan (Violin)

Sri. Sudarshan Gopalakrishnan (Mrudangam)

A.V. Krishnan (Ghatam)

Concert #3 - Junior 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM

Kesav Viswanadha (Vocal)

Aparna Thyagarajan (Violin)

Akshay Venkatesan (Mrudangam)

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Shravanti Shankar (vocal)

Shravanti Shankar is an eighth grader at the Kennedy Middle school in Cupertino. She has been very fortunate to be learning vocal Carnatic music for 5 years with the Sripaduka Academy. Shravanti has started to give longer solo performances in the last 1 year, and also sings duet with her older sister.

She is very thankful to her teachers for giving her the support and mentorship over the years, and helping her in putting together this concert. Besides Carnatic Music, Shravanti enjoys singing other genres of singing, and also enjoys singing and conducting in her school choir. Shravanti also learns Kuchipudi dance, and enjoys dancing to classical pieces.

Aparna Thyagarajan (Violin)

Aparna Thyagarajan started showing interest in Carnatic music from a very young age. She had her initial training in Carnatic vocal music from her mother Smt. Rama Thyagarajan, and started learning the violin at the age of 10. She is currently under the guidance of her uncle Vidwan Sri Delhi P. Sunderrajan for both vocal and violin. Aparna has provided violin accompaniment for many Bay Area schools, competitions, and individual artists. She has also given solo violin duets with her brother Vignesh Thyagarajan. Aparna has performed vocal music for various organizations throughout the Bay Area and has performed in Chennai as a part of the December Music Season. Aparna is currently a sophomore at Cupertino High School in Cupertino, CA.

Amit Ranganathan (Mridangam)

Amit Ranganathan is a disciple of Sri. Ravindra Bharathi Sridharan and performed his mrudangam arangetram accompanying Isai Peroli Sri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan. Amit has been accompanying musicians and students of various Bay Area and Sacramento music schools and has played under the auspices of several organizations including SIFA, LOTUS, Nandalala Mission, SR Fine Arts and Sacramento Aradhana. He accompanies regularly at Temples and House for festival concerts including Rama Navami, Navarthri, Vijayadasami celebrations as well as Thygaraja Aradhanas. He has also played for Bharatanatyam arangetram and dance programs in the Bay Area as well as in Sacramento.

Amit has also performed in the Chennai December season and in Fremont Margazhi Utsavam. He has also participated in the Carnatic youth festival NCYCAC in North Carolina. Amit has won the junior, senior and accompaniment awards at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Festival competitions.

In addition to learning mrudangam, Amit has learnt Carnatic vocal music from Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan. Amit is a freshman in San Jose State University and continues to accompany on a regular basis.

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Raghav Narasimhan (Violin)

Raghav is a 9th grader at Quarry Lane School. He started learning violin from his father Sri. S.N Narasimhan from a young age. Since then he has made steady progress in playing the instrument and has played in many events like Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana, RamaNavami Celebrations, Sanatana Dharma Kendra, SR Fine Arts, Badarikashrama, and others. He has accompanied students from various Music Schools in the Bay area. Raghav also gets creative input from his mother Smt. Subha Narasimhan for playing the violin. Raghav approaches each performance as a learning experience to further his knowledge in music.

Raghav learns vocal from Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan and Mridangam from Sri Natarajan Srinivasan. He appreciates the overall perspective he gains from learning the various different facets of Carnatic music. Raghav is amember of the school debate team and a member of the Tennis team at his Sports club.

Sri. Sudarshan Gopalakrishnan (Mridangam)

Sudharsan Gopalakrishnan started learning mridangam from Late Shri Nagai G Murugaiyan at the young age of 6 and did his Arangetram when he was 11. He then continued advanced training under Shri Sikkil Vadivelu Pillai, Shri Ariyalur Ganesa Iyer and Shri Poraiyar Venugopal Pillai. He was a recipient of NCERT scholarship for advanced training in mridangam. He has given many performances in All India Radio Coimbatore and Mysore while he was in India, as well as many temple and house concerts in the Bay area. He is an engineer by profession and musician by passion.

A.V. Krishnan (Ghatam)

Krishnan is a disciple of Shri T.H.V.Umashankar at the Sri Jaya Ganesh Tala Vadya Vidyalaya in Chennai. He has been accompanying upcoming artists in Chennai since 2014. He is currently studying in the US and continues accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists in the Bay Area.

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Kesav Viswanadha (Vocal)

Kesav Viswanadha has been learning Carnatic vocal music for the last 11 years with guru Sri Ashok Subramaniam. He participated in and won many awards at Shivan music festival. He also participated in Cleveland Aradhana in 2009 and Carnatic Idol 2014.

Kesav is a top-ranked player and International Master (IM) of chess, currently working toward his Grand Master (GM) title. He is the captain of his national championship winning high school chess team. He volunteers with Reading Partners program helping elementary school kids read at their age/grade level. He is currently a junior at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino.

Aparna Thyagarajan (Violin)

Aparna Thyagarajan started showing interest in Carnatic music from a very young age. She had her initial training in Carnatic vocal music from her mother Smt. Rama Thyagarajan, and started learning the violin at the age of 10. She is currently under the guidance of her uncle Vidwan Sri Delhi P. Sunderrajan for both vocal and violin. Aparna has provided violin accompaniment for many Bay Area schools, competitions, and individual artists. She has also given solo violin duets with her brother Vignesh Thyagarajan. Aparna has performed vocal music for various organizations throughout the Bay Area and has performed in Chennai as a part of the December Music Season. Aparna is currently a sophomore at Cupertino High School in Cupertino, CA.

Akshay Venkatesan (Mrudangam)

Akshay Venkatesan, a freshman in Evergreen Valley High School, is a student of Sarvalagu Percussion Art Center and has been learning Mridangam from `Laya Kala Ratna’ Sri Ramesh Srinivasan, a leading disciple of Mridangam Maestro Late Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Vellore G. Ramabhadran. Akshay has been regularly providing Mridangam support in many programs and accompanying for concerts in Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana festival since 2011. Akshay has been accompanying Vocalists, Instrumentalists and Bharatanatyam programs in Bay area for the last five years. In addition, Akshay has been accompanying in many Sabhas in the December music season in Chennai since 2013 for various vocalists and instrumentalists.

Akshay also learns vocal Carnatic music and is a student of Sri Paduka Academy. He also plays Alto Saxophone in the Symphonic band in his school.