Lotus programs in March 2010

TIME: STARTS AT 9.00 AM SHARP

JUNIOR CONCERT 2 - 3.00 PM TO 3.45 PM

Ajay Ravindra

Lakshmi Balasubramanya (Violin)

Ganesh Ramanarayanan (Mridangam)

JUNIOR CONCERT 3 - 4.00 PM TO 4.45 PM

Archana Upadhya & Parimala Muralidhara

Vinay Raghuram (Violin)

Santhosh Karuhatty (Mridangam)

Shruthi Sivanandan

Sruthi Sivanandan, 15, has been learning carnatic music for the past nine years from Smt Latha Sriram the artisitc director of Sri Lalitha Gana Vidyalaya in Fremont. She started back in 2001, while just a first grader, and has now reached the intermediate varnam level. Sruthi has taken part in numerous Sri Lalitha Gana Vidyalaya productions, the most recent one being "Guru Vandanam", the fifteenth anniversary of the school. She has also done many solo performances, at Trinity Day Programs, Thyagaraja Aradhana, and at Badrikashrama's 25th Anniversary. She recently gave a full length house concert in December along with full accompaniment. A freshman at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton, Sruthi also learns Bharathanatyam, Semi Classical dancing, and oil painting.

Lakshmi (Violin)

Lakshi is a violinist with more than 800 concerts to her credit, Lakshmi has received guidance from Prof. H.V. Krishnamurthy, Vid. S.V.Narayan and Vid. H.K. Venkataram .

A young artiste of very high potential, she has performed and accompanied numerous artists all over the country including Vid.TV Gopalakrishnan, Vid RK Srikanthan, Vid. Seetalakshmi Venkatesan, Vid RA Ramamani and others. She has received awards and honors including Ananya Pratibhe Award and the Prathibakankshi awards, Best violinist award from Ananya Cultural Academy, Malleshwaram Sangeeta Sabha, Gayana Samaja, Nadajyoti Sangeeta Sabha, Karnataka Gana Kala Parishat and many others.

She has a rare distinction of obtaining the 1st rank in Junior, Senior and Vidwat Music Exams. She is a B-High grade artist of All India Radio.

Balaji Mahadevan (Mrudangam)

Balaji Mahadevan had his initial training 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, Khol.

Ajay Ravindra (Vocal)

Ajay Ravindra has been a student of Carnatic classical music for over 10 years. He started his training in Vijaya College of Music (Bangalore, India) under the tutelage of Vidu. Vijaya and Vid. Ramesh Bellary; and recieved advanced guidance from Prof. H.V. Krishnamurthy and Vid. Salem Sundaresan.

Ajay has performed in many concerts in Bangalore. He is also a member of a Ganesh bhajan troupe that has given many performances in in Karnataka.

Ganesh Ramanarayanan (Mridangam)

Ganesh studied mridangam from the late Sangita Kalanidhi Sri Palghat Raghu and Ghatam vidwan Sri T. H. Subhashchandran. Starting in 2007, he started training himself in khanjira by watching recordings of the late Sri. G. Harishankar on Youtube. Ganesh frequently accompanies both local and visiting musicians on both the mridangam and khanjira. He has also studied vocal music from a variety of teachers, notably Smt. Padma Srinivasan of NJ and Sri. P. S. Narayanaswami.

Archana Upadhya started learning Carnatic Classical Music at a very young age from Smt. Srirangamma and Smt. Jayalakshmi in Bangalore. She is currently pursuing her music education under the tutelage of Smt.Padmaja kishore, Director of Gana Mandir Fine Arts, San Jose. She has given many performances along with her music school on various occasions at Sanatana Dharma Kendra, Badrikashrama, Shiva -Vishnu Temple, SIFA and KKNC. She has also been a part of the team that won first and second prize in the Naatya Raaga Music competition conducted by OSAAT.

Parimala Muralidhara was initially introduced to the art of Carnatic Music through Smt. Lalitha Gopalaswamy and then with Smt. Saraswathi Shankar in Bangalore, India. After coming to the Bay Area, her passion for learning did not end. From the past 10 years she has been a constant disciple of Smt. Padmaja Kishore in Gandamandir Fine Arts. She has been a part of the first and second prize winners team in the OSAAT Annual Naatya Raaga Music competitions for two consecutive years. She has also performed at the Sanatana Darma Kendra, Badrikashrama ,KKNCas well as SIFA for various occasions. Outside of the realm of classical music, Parimala has taken part in RAAGA, the very first Kannada band in the Bay Area and has performed locally as well as out of state with the RAAGA team. She has appeared as a guest artist for the Prithvi band and has performed for VPA.

Vinay Raghuram (Violin)

Parimala Muralidhara

Vinay Raghuram, 17, a junior at Monta Vista High school in Cupertino, is learning carnatic violin from Dr. Susheela Narasimhan since 2004. He is

also learinng carnatic vocal from his aunt Vidhushi Usha Char of Washington DC since 2003 as a "long distance student". He has given several

individual vocal concerts and accompanied on violin at venues like Thyagaraja Aradhana at Washington DC, Lotus events and chamber concerts

in the bay area, Ayyanar College for Music, and Balaji Sangeetha Vidyalaya in Bangalore, India.

Santhosh Karuhatty (Mridangam)

Santhosh Karuhatty is from Mysore originally and is working in Bay Area for the last 5 years. He learnt Mridangam from B. R. Sridhar and Shiv Shankar while in Mysore. After completing his BE from Mysore university, he came to United States do MS in computer science in the year 2000. Currently working as a software engineer at IBM, he continues to keep his hands busy on Mridangam by accompanying various artists in Bay Area from past 4 years. Santhosh Karuhatty loves percussion instruments and is trying to improve on it constantly.

Archana Upadhya