VishalArangetramBrochure

Mridangam Arangetram ofChi. Vishal Venkat Setlur (Disciple of Laya Kala Rathna Sri. Ramesh Srinivasan) Sunday, 28th June 2015 @ 2:30 PM Venue : KEA Prabhath Rangamandira 8th Main, 2nd Cross, Kamalanagar, Bangalore, India. Ph. : +91 80 23232294

About Mridangam The Mridangam is a percussion instrument from India of Tamil origin, dating back to the 4th-5th Century B.C. Made of Wood from the jackfruit tree, the mridangam is the primary rhythmicaccompaniment in a Carnatic Music ensemble, often accompanied by other percussion instrumentslike the Ghatam, Kanjira, and Morsing. Ancient Hindu sculptures, paintings, and mythology oftendepict deities like Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, and Nandikeshwar, the divine carrier ofLord Shiva, playing the mridangam. Nandikeshwar, in fact, is said to have played mridangam duringLord Shiva's primordial Tandavam dance, causing a divine rhythm to resonate across the heavens.Thus the mridangam came to be known as Deva Vaadyam or instrument of the Gods. Among all thepercussion instruments , the mridangam has a special place both because of its tonal qualities and itshandiness. The tonal qualities have been brilliantly demonstrated by the great maestros who havereproduced and matched every swara of a song with the deft manipulation of the instrument. About the Concert The concert will consist of a set of structured compositions as well as improvisational elementsintended to showcase the talents of the mridangist. The compositions will cover the major taalas, in arange of ragas. They will have elaborate sangathis, providing ample room for the mridangist toembellish and complement the vocalist. During a thani (percussion solo), the mridangist and theaccompanying ghatam artist showcase their skills with constant interplay and exchange, starting at aslow pace with solo improvisations followed by a ratcheting up of the pace and interplay between thetwo instruments and culminating in a crescendo of rhythm. In addition, the mridangist vocalizes thepercussion sounds (konnakol) prior to demonstrating them on the mridangam. The other highlight ofthe concert will be a RagamTanamPallavi (RTP) featuring a complex taala that challenges themridangist. About the Artists Neyveli Sri. R. Santhanagopalan is a versatile musical personality who has carved a distinct place for himself in the world of Carnatic Music. His style is distinguished by his adherence to strict raga interpretation, especially in his rigorous manodharma (creative interpretation) and raga sancharams (bringing out the essential elements or qualities of a raga). He is a celebrated vocalist renowned for rendering effective concerts couched in Bhakthi and Bhava. Widely acknowledged as one of the most talented singers, he places emphasis on purity of nada and tone, restrained and measured grasp of kritis,deep mastery of neravals and delivery of ragam-tanam-pallavis without any trace of ostentation. Adistinctive musicologist, Sri. NSG, is proficient in playing the veena, the mridangam and the kanjirawith strengths in 'laya' exposition. He is well regarded within the Carnatic Musical fraternity as beinga thinking man's musician through his cerebral, methodical approach to raga delineation. He haslectured extensively and has also conducted several lecture demonstration workshops in order toenhance music appreciation qualities for the rasikas. Sri. NSG has also done extensive research on'Nada Laya Yoga', exploring the therapeutic and curative effects of music.

Sri. Santhanagopalan was born to a culturally strong family where music has been worshipped. Hismother, Smt. Jayalakshmi Ammal, introduced him to the world of music. He received hisintroductory training from reputed gurus like Late Chembai, Sri. C. S. Ananthamani, a nephew ofLate Chembai Sri. Vaidyanathan Bagavathar and from Srirangam Sri. R. Ranganathan. However, hishard work and passion towards music combined with the rigorous gurukulam training he receivedfrom Sangeetha Kalanidhi Madurai Sri. T. N. Seshagopalan, tuned his musical abilities to that of afront ranking musician. In order to promote value-based music and to encourage aspiringstudents of Carnatic Music, Sri. Santhanagopalan has established his own music school,Sri Chandrasekara Gurukripa' Acknowledging his talent he has been conferred many accolades from reputed institutions andorganizations in India and overseas, including the Cleveland Acharya Ratnakara Award, AriyakudiRamanuja Iyengar Award, Thyagaraja Purandaradasar Award by Rajarajeshwari Cultural association,Bangalore; Kanchi Mutt, Asthana Vidwan; Sringeri Mutt, Asthana Vidwan; Sri GanapathiSacchidananda Mutt, Mysore, Asthana Vidwan, to name a few. Sri. R. Raghul was initiated into the world of music at an early age of 6 years by Smt. Vasantha Kannan of Kolkata. He then came under the tutelage of Sri. P. Govindarajan from whom he imbibed a strong foundation of the gayaki style of the great violin Maestro, Sangeetha Kalanidhi, Dr. M. Chandrasekaran. He has had the good fortune of getting advanced training from the Violin Maestro SangeethaKalanidhi Dr. M. Chandrasekaran himself, for the past 12 years. He is trying to imbibe the versatile and vibrant style of his guru which is a fine blend of vocal singing, the veenapathadi, and theNagaswarapidis. His guru places great emphasis on following like a 'shadow', not hindering the mainartiste while at the same time enhancing the overall performance. Sri. Raghul has also undergone vocal training from the illustrious Sangeetha BhushanamSri. O.V. Subramaniam. He is a research scholar in Music (JRF Awardee) at the University ofMadras besides being a post- graduate in Mathematics.Sri Raghul was graded “A” by the All India Radio at a young age of 20. He has won many awards andtitles including: The Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham Asthana Vidwan from Sri Kanchi Mutt.,The BharatRatna M.S. Subbulakshmi fellowship award from Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha, Mumbai, the BestViolinist Award from Sri Thyagabrahma Gana Sabha and many more. He a well sought afteraccompanist and has the distinguished honor of having accompanied various senior vidwans andvidhushis including his own legendary guru Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri. M. Chandrasekaran. Sri. S.V. Ramani had his initial training from his father, Late Sri Pallipuram R. Seshamani (retired AIR staff artist). He underwent further training under the world renowned Mridangist Kalaimamani Sri Guruvayur Dorai. His first public performance was at the age of 8 years. At a young age, he was fortunate to get opportunities to play for stalwarts like Sangita Pithamaha Sri. Semmangudi SrinivasaIyer, Bharat Ratna Smt. M. S. Subbulakshmi, Dr.Balamurali Krishna, Sri. T. N. Krishnan, Sri. Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, Sri. K.V. Narayanaswamy, Sri. D.K. Jayaraman, Sri. Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Sri. M.S. Gopalakrishnan, Sri. Chittibabu, Sri R.K. Srikantan to name a few. He has also accompanied many concerts with Maestros like Sri. Palakkad Raghu, Sri.Umayalapuram

Sivaraman, Sri. T.K. Murthy, Sri. Vellore Ramabhadran, Sri. Guruvayur Dorai, Sri. Trichy Sankaran,Thavil exponent Sri. A.K. Pazhanivel and many other accomplished vidwans. For the past three decades, he has continued to accompany all leading artists and vidwans both inIndia and abroad. Sri. Ramani has collaborated with eminent Hindustani musicians like Pandit Jasraj,Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan along with great tabla Maestros Ustad ZakirHussain, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee and many contemporary musicians. Honored as a Top Rankedartist in both Ghatam and Mrudangam, he has performed for many CD recordings for leadingcarnatic musicians. He has also worked with Cine music directors like Ilayaraja, Deva, Vidhyasagar formovies. Sri. S.V. Ramani has been bestowed with many awards and honors from primordialorganizations,some of which include Best Percussionist from Prestigious Sabhas like Music Academy,Naradha Gana Sabha, Indian Fine Arts Society and others. He was awarded the Asthana Vidwan bySri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Kanchipura About the Special Guests Dr. Rudrapatnam. N. Tharanathan, is one of the popularly known Rudrapatnam Brothers, one of the senior most Vocal Duos with a distinction of top ranking grade in All India Radio and Doordarshan. He and his elder brother Rudrapatnam Sri. N. Thyagarajan, hail from a family of reputed musicians from Rudrapatnam in Hassan district of Karnataka. They are the sons and disciples of late Sri R. K. Narayana Swamy, who himself was a disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Musiri SubramanyaIyer. They also received trainingfrom their elder uncle Sri R. K. Venkatarama Sastry, an eminent violinist. They gave the first concertin 1956 and since then they have been performing regularly all over the country and abroad includingUSA and UK, accompanied by highly acclaimed top ranking artistes. They have been conferred withnumerous awards and titles including Karnataka State Government Rajyotsava award, KarnatakaSangeetha Nritya Academy and Madras Music Academy awards, etc. They have released a numberof audio cassettes and CDs. Dr. Tharanathan, after serving as a Senior Scientist, retired as Director-grade Scientist from Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore.Dr. Tharanathan is one among six distinguished Indian Scientists, who published the greatestnumber of highly citied Research Papers during 2002-2012, as featured by Thomson Reuters, Web ofScience, USA ,2014. Sri. G.V. Krishna Prasad serves as Honorary Secretary and continues to uphold the mission of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, a school dedicated to the lifelong learning of music, founded in Bangalore, India in 1955 by his father the Late Sri. G. Vedanta Iyengar, an educationist of the highest repute. Over the past 60 years, the school, has been giving aspiring musicians an opportunity to learn Carnatic music in its purest and most authentic form. and has has hosted over a 1000 concerts, taught innumerable students vocal, veena, violin and

mridangam, delivered lecture demonstration and workshops, and participated in a number ofvolunteer and community enrichment based activities. His continued association with musicians ofgreat repute has made Sri. G.V. Krishna Prasad a much respected person in Bangalore music circles.He is also mridangamvidwan honoured recently with the title Vishesha Kalaposhaka in 2015 byVishesha Fine Arts at its annual event. About the Gurus Sri. Vellore G. Ramabhadran's name is synonymous with the Sarvalaghubaani of Mridangam. Sri Ramabhadran began learning music from his illustrious father, Konnakkol Sri Gopalachariar at the early age of four. His unique style of accompaniment clearly distinguished him from the other artistes and he was soon the most sought after Mridangist. Sri. Ramabhadran was fondly christened as \"Nadabhadran\" bySri. Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar for his ability to infuse Nadam (melody) into his rhythm. Inrecognition of his talent, Sri Vellore Ramabhadran was conferred the title of Sangeetha Kalanidhi bythe Music Academy, Madras. He participated in Tala Vadya ensembles and Jugalbandis all over Indiaand abroad, often giving lecture demonstrations to students and patrons. In the world ofinstrumental music, his calibre as an accomplished accompanist as well as soloist was commonknowledge. His Thani in a concert was always short and sweet, enhancing the musical recital withoutovert technical exuberance. While Sri. Ramabhadran responded with flair to the manodharmaexchanges, his supportive percussion style gave the main artistes the confidence to fully expressthemselves. Sri. Ramabhadran's profound knowledge of, and his intuitive feel for Carnatic Musicinformed his accompanying style, always taking the concert to newer heights. He believed that aMridangist shares one-third of the responsibility in making a concert successful. He was honored withmany accolades during his long and rewarding career, and remained a consummate accompanist, anunassuming and content person, beloved of the rasikas as well as artistes, until the end. Guru Sri. Ramesh Srinivasan, a well known and sought after Mridangam artist in North America, is the leading disciple of Mridangam Maestro Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri. Vellore G. Ramabhadran. Ramesh is the recipient of the prestigious `Laya Kala Rathna' award in 2007, by Sriragam Fine arts, Chennai. He was awarded the 1st rank in the preliminary AIR Music Competition in the entire Southern Region of India in 1984.Ramesh had his maiden concert in 1976 and has since performed at Music Academy and otherpopular Sabhas in Chennai on several occasions and in numerous organizations and festivals abroadincluding the inaugural show of the Festival of India in the ) US in 1986 and the prestigious ClevelandThyagaraja Aradhana Festival. Ramesh's accompanying style is noted for its sensitivity to music andhighly proactive support, which lends itself to making it a very rewarding experience for the mainartist as well as the audience. Prominent Carnatic musicians whom Ramesh has accompanied withinclude SangitaKalanidhis (R.K.Srikantan, T.K. Govinda Rao, and B. RajamIyer), Senior Violin

VidwanParur M. S. Anantharaman, O. S. Thyagarajan, Smt. Suguna Purushothaman, ChitravinaRavikiran, Smt. Bombay Jayashree, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Dr. Pramila Gurumurthy, Smt. S.Sowmya, Cherthala K.N. Ranganatha Sharma and Carnatica Brothers, among others. Ramesh hasperformed in Jugalbandhi/fusion/Jazz concerts with artistes like Sangeet Samrat ChitraveenaRavikiran, Santoor Maestro Tarun Bhattacharya, Sitar Virtuoso Ustad Habib Khan, Tabla MaestroPandit Swapan Chaudhuri & Grammy Award winners, Saxophone exponent George Brooks andPandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. About the School Sarvalaghu Percussion Art Center was founded by Sri. Ramesh Srinivasan in 1994 inPERCUSSION the San Francisco Bay Area. Sri. Ramesh's deep passion and dedication towardsservice of the art of percussion prompted him to start the Sarvalaghu Percussion Art Center. Theschool is named in honor of his guru and mentor, the great Doyen of Mridangam, Sri. Vellore G.Ramabhadran, whose Sarvalaghu Baani of playing has been a treat to vidwans and rasikas alike. Thiscenter has trained more than 200 students since its inception and currently has 75 active studentsranging in age from 5-62, who have exhibited their proficiency by partici-pating in various programsin the US as well as in India. The first ever Mridangam Arangetram in the Bay Area was performed bya student of this school in the year 2008. Subsequently, the school has had multiple arangetrams inUSA and India. Sri. Ramesh continues his Guru's illustrious tradition of combining rigoroustraining along with encouraging creativity and self expression in his students. About the Debutant Chi. Vishal Venkat Setlur is blessed to hail from a family, who settled in Bangalorefor generations, where music has always been given special place by nurturing and passingon the art to their family members. Vishal is the eldest great grandson of late Smt T PVijayalakshmi who was blessed with musical talent descending from her uncle, SangeethaKalanidhi Sri. Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sarma of Tirupati..Vishal evinced a keeninterest and flair for rhythmic music since the age of three and paid special attention tocarnatic and hindustani music being played in the background in the car whenever he

accompanied his parents during their outings. With his latent interest in devotional music,Vishal would play along rhythmically to this music with his toy khanjira. Pandit Jasraj'sBhajans were of particular interest to him and he expressed a desire to attend Pt. Jasraj'sconcert. It was sheer coincidence that Pandit Jasraj gave a Bhajan style Haveli concert inChicago around 2007 and Vishal got not only a chance of a life time to attend it live andwatch/listen to his favourites but also had the opportunity to meet him after the concertconcluded. Vishal wrote a letter to Pt. Jasraj-ji appreciating his bhajans and expressing hisheartfelt desire to listen to them day and night. He was lucky to get an audience with theMaestro and he cherishes the photograph taken with him as well as the autographedgreetings with the words \"Jai Ho\" to Chi Vishal. Observing this keen sense of rythm and the musical potential in him, Vishal's parentsdecided to set him on the path of learning the percussive art form.in early 2008. Vishal wasinitiated into learning Mridangam at Swaralaya - a school of rythms for students in theGreater Chicagoland area run by Sri. Ravi Subramanyan (disciple of Sri. Mannargudi A.Easwaran). Vishal further flourished under the tutelage of his current Guru Laya KalaRatna Sri. Ramesh Srinivasan (prime disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Late. Sri. Vellore G.Ramabhadran). Vishal thrived under this Sarvalaghubani - a style of teaching, wherein hewas given a lot of creative latitude to explore and express what he felt and respond to anysong by listening to voice of the drummer in him. With the careful nurturing by his guru aswell as abiding his own interest and love for music, Vishal has emerged into a buddingmridangist, who loves to innovate and create. His Mridangam playing style involvesproviding sensitive and supportive accompaniment to vocalists and instrumentalists alike. Vishal, now a 7th grader at Miller Middle School in San Jose, has actively performed inseveral of his percussion school's appearances in Tala Vaadyaprogrammes around the Bayarea and for various carnatic music school annual day events and has led a ensembleperformance for the school while his guru was away in India. He enjoys helping out newerstudents of his school when asked to perform Teaching Assistant duties. He hasparticipated in the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival the past three years, providingmridangam accompaniment, first in April 2013 in a Taala Vaadya performance in memoryof Parama Guru Sangeetha Kalanidhi Late Sri. Vellore G. Ramabhadran, then in April2014 in the Sustaining Sampradaya tribute to Late Sri. Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and mostrecently in April 2015 in the Carnatic Symphony and EPIC programmes. In addition tomridangam, Vishal has also been learning carnatic vocal music under the guidance ofGuru Smt. Jayashree Dasarathy (Disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri. MaduraiT.N. Seshagopalan) at the Vidyapeetha School since early 2013. Vishal's hobbies includelisten to music and playing basketball where he has represented his middle school team aswell as tennis and football.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Lord for His blessings and for giving me the wonderful opportunity tolearn this divine art form and am very fortunate to have Ramesh Uncle as my Guru. He has served asan inspiration for me, instilling and nurturing my passion for this art form. His tremendousdedication, guidance, and support over the years have brought me to where I am today. Throughoutthe years, he has always pushed me to reach my full potential and has made the journey enjoyable forme. Ramesh Uncle's collaborative approach with many Bay area music teachers and schools hascreated multiple opportunities for me to perform and learn. These humbling experiences havefurther enriched my understanding of this art form. My parents have been incredibly supportive of everything I have strived to do in my life. Theirendless love and encouragement coupled with the sacrifices they have made to push me towardssuccess makes me feel truly blessed. I would like to thank Amma for singing for me countless times athome and Appa for dropping everything and driving me to classes in Evergreen, San Jose at amoment's notice and my little brother for always being my greatest fan. I would also like to thank mygrandparents who are here egging me on with their constant encouragement. I wish to highlight thatmy paternal grandparents are celebrating completing 50 years of married life yesterday. I hope thisprogramme will be a fond one for them to remember this milestone. I am also very fortunate to havemy great grandmother witness my arangetram today. It is such an honour for me. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Neyveli Mama, Ramani Mama and Raghul Unclefor giving me a chance to accompany them. It is the greatest honour and blessing for me to make mydebut performance on stage in the company of artists of such high caliber. I am humbled to haveTharanathan Mama and Krishna Prasad Mama as the Chief Guest and the Guest of Honour andwould like to thank them for coming in spite of their busy schedules. Thanks to Geetha Aunty andeveryone else who helped me in my practices. Thanks to all my uncles, aunts and cousins who havealways been very supportive of me. Thanks to all the Bay Area music schools for giving meopportunities to provide mridangam accompaniment. Thanks to all my friends and volunteerswithout whom this event would not have been a success. Last but not least, I would like to thank allthe rasikas in the audience for taking the time to come to my arangetram and encourage me.Thank You,Vishal http://keaprabhathrangamandira.com/contact.html Thank You! Sarvalaghu Percussion Art Center San Jose, California, USA Smt. Niraja and Sri. Arvind Setlur