Upcoming Event on January 23

The upcoming event is scheduled on Sunday, January 23, 2011.
Venue: 7100 Nicollet Ave, Richfield, MN 55423
List of the performers is given below:
2:00 pm to 2:45 pm Mahati Pidaparti (Carnatic Vocal) Accompaniments provided by Sri Prashanth Gururaja on Violin
Sri Sriram Natrajan on Mridangam and
Sri Balaji Chandran on Ghatam
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm Geeta Janardhana (Carnatic Vocal)

Bios of the performers:
Mahati Pidaparti has been learning Carnatic music for the past ten years. She started learning from Smt. Ramanammma Manda and is currently learning from Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar and Smt. Bhargavi Ganesh. She has participated in many community events, such as the annual Aradhana, Festival of Nations, temple events, etc. She has been leading the assembly at the Hindu American Temple School for the past two years. She is currently a junior at Wayzata High School and is a member of the National Youth Leadership Council.

Geetha Janardhana is learning music under the tutelage of Prof. T. S Rama, who is an A grade artiste at All India Radio. She has accompanied her guru on many occasions like Doordarshan South Zone program and a radio feature by Gyan Vani on Goddess Durga during Navarathri. She has also won the Yuva Kala Pratibha Puraskara for the year 2007, from Sangeetha Nritya Academy, Govt. of Karnataka. She has participated in numerous competitions and won many prizes.

Prashanth Gururaja on Violin grew up in New Jersey, where he learned Carnatic violin under Mysore Sateesh, Ganesh Kumar, and Anantha Krishnan. He performs frequently in classical concerts with local and international artists around the Midwest, Northeast, and Toronto. He also regularly performs in Carnatic and world music ensembles around Detroit/Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has continued his Carnatic training under Jayshankar Balan in Detroit. Prashanth currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he graduated from the University of Michigan and works as an engineer for the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Sriram Natarajan on the Mridangam Sriram is a versatile Mridangam artiste and collaborative world musician. Sriram started training on the Mridangam at the age of 9, under the veteran Guru Sri K V Maniappan in Mumbai. Presently under the able guidance of Tanjavur Sri Murugaboopathy, Sriram has had advanced training from Sangeetha Kalanidhi Padma Sri Palghat Raghu. His style of accompaniment is very adaptive to both instrumental and vocal music. Sriram regularly accompanies renowned and upcoming artistes in India during the December music season in Chennai. He travels around the US and has performed at several venues in the cities of Chicago, Madison, Boston, Columbus, Philadelphia and across the state of Minnesota. His world music collaborations include the St Olaf Jazz Band, Northfield MN, Kora Artiste Mamdou Diabate at the Festival of Nations in St Paul MN and the Brass Kings. Sriram is a resident of Apple Valley MN and is the founder of the Layyasaaram school of music.

Balaji Chandran on Ghatam Balaji Chandran started his Carnatic percussion studies in Mridhangam under Sri.Kovai Mani and Sri. Kadayanallur Narayana Iyer. He is a disciple of Sri.Ghatam V.Suresh from whom he learns Ghatam for the past 5 years. He brings with him an energetic style of playing the Ghatam bestowed upon him by his guru. He has provided his percussive support to many artists in America and in India. He considers himself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to lend support to stalwarts like Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri.R.K Srikantan, Prof. Ramakanth, Isai Peroli Sri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan and stars of current generation like Smt. Nirmala Rajasekar, Smt. Sikkil Mala Chandrashekar, Sri Suryaprakash, Sri. Mullaivasal Chandramauli, Sri. Mysore Chandan Kumar. He has been part of the Aradhana celebrations in Minnesota, USA for the past 8 years, and has performed in many venues across America. He also features in the first Carnatic Audio album released by an Independent American record label Innova Records called “Song of the Veena”. He was part of an ensemble that won the top honors in the recently conducted carnatic music competition held by “International society of Laya awareness” in Chennai. He has collaborated with St.Olaf Collage Jazz band and “Brass Kings” an American Blue Grass Jazz band. He is also adept in playing the Kanjira and has also lent his support in both Mridhangam and Ghatam for Bharathanatyam Arengetrams.