January 2025 concertS

Happy New Year 2025. We have three concerts this Month. Please attend in large numbers, encourage the artists and enjoy the concerts.

DATE: Saturday, January 18, 2025 

TIME: 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM

VENUE: SANATHANA DHARMA KENDRA, 3102 Landess Ave, San Jose, CA 95132

Prisha Balan (Vocal)

Prisha Balan has been learning Carnatic vocal music for the past 10 years under Guru Smt. Kasthuri Shivakumar, who is a prime disciple of Neyveli Sri. R. Santhanagopalan. Prisha has performed solo concerts on several platforms in the USA including LOTUS Silicon Valley, SR Fine Arts, Carnatic Chamber Concerts, and Saptami. She had the opportunity to perform in the Chennai Margazhi season in VVSF's Swagatham Festival 2023 and in several online platforms including Shishirotsavam Festival by SaMaa Arts and Liveforyouva. She has also participated in several events in the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. Prisha has won prizes in various music competitions conducted in the bay area, at Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana and at international level. She is the chief co-editor of CCC's Carnatic Chronicles magazine and is a recipient of the Gold Presidential Award for her community service in music. Prisha also learns Bharatanatyam under Smt. Mythili Kumar of Abhinaya Dance Company and has completed her Bharatanatyam Arangetram in Aug 2023. She is a senior at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, CA.

Vikram Iyer (Violin)

Vikram Iyer was initiated into Carnatic music at an early age. He has learnt music – both violin and vocal – from Smt. Anuradha Sridhar. He started learning the violin at the age of 9. He is currently a disciple of Kalyanapuram Shri. Aravind Soundararajan for vocal and Delhi Shri. P Sunder Rajan for violin. He has been fortunate to perform vocal as well as violin accompaniment for concerts in Chennai during the December Music season. In 2018, he won prizes in violin and vocal categories at the Shamukhananda Sabha annual competitions in Mumbai. In December 2022, he presented a vocal concert at Shri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai. He has performed vocal concerts as well as provided violin accompaniment for concerts in the Bay Area, Chennai and also on online platforms. Vikram is a senior at UC Santa Barbara studying Electrical Engineering.

Pranav Tirumalai (Mridangam)

Pranav Tirumalai began his musical journey at the age of 6 under the able guidance of Sri. Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan. For the past 9 years, Pranav has had the fortune of learning the art of mridangam from Sri. Trichur C. Narendran, a Vidwan belonging to the illustrious musical lineage of Padma Shri Palghat Raghu and Sangita Kalanidhi Palghat Mani Iyer. Pranav has had the opportunity to accompany several Bay Area musicians ranging from youngsters like himself to established artists. Pranav is currently pursuing a degree in Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis.

Deeksha Venkateswaran (Hindustani - Vocal) 

Deeksha Venkateswaran is learning hindustani vocal for the past 12 years from Sri Manoj Tahmankar and Archana Tahankar. She continues her tutelage from Pandit Vijay Koparkar for the past 8 years. She has been the National winner of 2020 Chaitradhun competition in the Senior vocal category. She is also a practicing Carnatic violinist and accompanist. She is a sophomore in SJSU.

Rigved Barve (HArmonium)

Rigved Barve is from Cupertino, California and is currently a first year undergrad student at Santa Clara University, studying biology.

Rigved started learning Hindustani Classical Music at the age of six and took his early music lessons from Shrimati Anumapa Chandratreya and Shri Manoj Tamhankar. For the last 5 1/2 years, he has been a disciple of Dr. Pt. Raja Kale (the senior-most disciple of late Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki), and is taking rigorous and advanced training from Panditji.  

He has also been learning the tabla for the last 11 years - under the guidance of Shri Satish Tare. Additionally, he is a self-taught harmonium player for the last 6 years, and recently, he has started taking advanced harmonium training from Shri Vivek Datar.

Rigved has won several awards for his vocal, harmonium and tabla performances in many competitions including BMM 2022 and BMM 2024. Rigved has performed in numerous concerts in the Bay Area, as well as several places in India, giving more than 250 concerts over the last 13 years!

Tejas Venkateswaran (Tabla)

Tejas started his tabla tutelage at a tender age of 6 from Ustad Arshad Sayed a senior disciple of Ustad Allah Rakah . Tejas has performed on the tabla on various occasions and has accompanied many artists in the bay area  for the past 10 years. Currently he continues to learn from Shri Vivek Pandya. He is a software engineer by profession.

Manasa Hari (Vocal)

(Violin)

(Mrdangam)