Shruti Laya Thyagaraja Aradhana, Feb. 12 2011

Shruti Laya started the 2011 music season with a celebration of Thyagaraja Aradhana. The event began with the traditional singing of Sri Ganapathini Sevincharaare, followed by the Pancharatna krithis. Area music teachers and students joined in the singing.

This was followed by three mini concerts. The first concert was by Smt. Saavitri Ramanand, supported on the violin by Sri. B.Raghuttam and on the mridangam by Sri. Murali Balachandran. Smt. Saavitri chose as her theme the krithis of Thyagaraja on other deities. The highlight of her concert was a brilliantly rendered Kalyani alapana followed by the Kovoor Pancharatna krithi "Ninnu nammi vacchina".

The next concert was by Smt. Lalitha Bhadrinath, supported on the violin by Sri. Vivek Rudrapatna, and the mridangam by Sri. Murali Balachandran. Her concert was marked by its high energy, starting with a vigorous rendition of "Anupama Gunambudhi" in Atana. She showed a completely different side of Kalyani in her alapana for "Sundari needivya roopamunu chooda".

The final concert of the day was by the mother - daughter duo of Smt. Satyabhama Rajalingam and Smt. Krishni Anandarajan. They chose as their theme the krithis of Thyagaraja on Music. In addition to well known krithis like Sobhillu Saptaswara, they rendered rarely heard gems like Seethavara Sangeetagnaanamu (Devagandhari) and Haridaasulu Vedale (Yamuna Kalyani).

Shruti Laya relishes this opportunity to bring our own local stars to the stage in this annual celebration. This forms a complement to our efforts to showcase the music students in our composers day events, like the recent Papanasam Sivan day. We would like to thank all the local artists who participated. Our grateful thanks are also due to the volunteer food donors Varalakshmi Ananthabhotla, Vijaya Mani, Suhasini Jonnavithula, Sharvani Srinivas, Sumathi Sumangali and Jaya Sundar, who made the long day possible, Mallikarjuna Dokku for video, Sundar Venugopal and Suhasini Jonnavithula for the photography and Subu Garikapati, Sriram Garikapati, Satish Kovvuri and Aswatha Narayana for help with the arrangements. And of course, to the wonderful audience that made all this possible.