Carnatic music milestone?

I understand some of you may not be interested in South Indian Carnatic Music but I thought you might be willing to spend 10mins of your time to watch our daughter Sharanya (She is the one in the center of vocalists in marroon dhavani) performing with other NRI (Non-Resident Indian) kids at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Festival's INAUGURAL CONCERT here in the USA. They made history for the following reasons -

1. This is the first attempt by NRI kids to give a full 3 hour CONCERT with full accompaniments, delivering krithis, kalpanaswarams, ragam, thaanam, pallavi
2. They got the PRIME TIME INAUGURAL CONCERT SLOT for the 30th Anniversary of the festival, which is an honor by itself and they did full justice to the given opportunity
3. They were trained by many legendary musicians and current day artistes of national and international fame. Lessons were given using Skype followed by some on-shore training in the US for a brief period. The kids actually spent just over 24 full hours together as a team before getting on stage to deliver to a jam packed PRESTIGIOUS WAETJEN AUDITORIUM AT THE CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY, Cleveland , Ohio.
4. The concert was attended in FULL by many senior artistes occupying the front 3 rows of the auditorium (Sudha Raghunathan, Dr. N.Ramani, Dr. Nagai Murali, PSN Sir, A.S.Murali sir, Suguna Purushottaman, among many other luminaries)
5. The background stage setting with 6-7 feet tall IDOLS of Saint Tyagaraja flanked by Lord Venkateswara and Padmavathi, enhanced the spirits of everyone in the auditorium which gave a standing ovation to the kids

For some of you who may not be aware , Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana festival (www.aradhana.org) has been going on for over 30years and for the past few years has grown to a full scale 10 day festival attempting to get the Madras Music Academy season atmosphere here in the USA. All senior artistes from India and abroad come and perform here. This is also one of the most credible and challenging platform available at a national level to NRI artistes. The State of Ohio celebrates all the 10days as Tyagaraja days and the program kicks off with a message read by one of the elected assembly men on behalf of the state.

Now the climax of this story is that these kids are scheduled to perform at the Academy in Chennai (Madras) in India in the last week of December 2007 or early January 2008 during the season. The group is then travelling to TIRUVAIYARU to perform in front of the SAINT's Samadhi which is a lifetime opportunity. Now if this sounds interesting, and in case you missed watching it on JAYA TV (national channel on Indian television), please click on the URL below and play it on your computer and give your blessings to all these kids who have sacrificed so much to make this ambitious project, breaking all technical, geographical and timezone barriers successful.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t3Oj-UvD6bs

Vidhya,
First let me congratulate your daughter Sharanya and others who have performed so well. Fantastic job! It just brought tears to my eyes. The stage setting was also wonderful. I learned Carnatic music for 8 years and always love to hear carnatic music. I teach my daughter when ever i get time. I wish i can bring her to Cleveland for the next Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana festival.
Congrats again!
Way to go, Kids!

regards

Well-rendered performance! I started developing a ear for Carnatic music just a couple of years back. I have very limited knowledge of Carnatic music, nevertheless, I enjoyed the well co-ordinated rendition of these children, who living miles away from India have truly sustained their culture.

Sindhuja and Nivedi,
Thank you so much for your valuable comments and good wishes. The kids and parents worked very hard towards making this possible and certainly comments from knowledgeable viewers (such as yourselves) go a long way in encouraging such endeavours.

VidhyaS

hi vidya,

I am an ardent carnatic music lover. My daughter and son are also learning cm.i can understand the effort by the teachers and parents to arrange such a feat. congrats to you and your daughter.

Keep it up.

love,
shanthi

hi vidhyas,
by seeing your post i just got stunned.and inspired verymuch.by seeing ur profile i understood that ur a wonderful personality.i appreciate the talents of ur kids.wish to take advice from u.i have a 5yr old daughter and 8 yr old son. i have passion for only one thing that is parenting.my kids r doing academically well.recently my son has taken award for his brilliance in gifted children group.but i have a strong wish to make my kids understand and enjoy carnatic music.i live in ct.would u please guide me how to do that.hope i do get an advice from u.
best wishes
lavanya

Originally Posted by shanvy

hi vidya,

I am an ardent carnatic music lover. My daughter and son are also learning cm.i can understand the effort by the teachers and parents to arrange such a feat. congrats to you and your daughter.

Keep it up.

love,
shanthi

hi shanvy,
could u please guide me on how i can make my kids learn music and where from online .from any guru.my kids r in the age 8 and 5.please advice me.
thanks
lavanya

Dear Vidhya,
Manamaarntha paarattukkal!!!!
Great work by organizers, Parents and chamathu kids.They are singing much better than their counterparts in India.What Subha (Jaya TV)told is true..When in India, ppl find excuses for not teaching their children carnatic songs and other sampradayas, you've taken your valuable time amidst busy work schedules to see that these kids perform well....Keep it up!
Love
Meena

Lavanya,

That reply was when i was in muscat. right now back in chennai and they go to a local teacher here.

You can use skype. there are many people who teach, from chennai.

I am told the sivan academy has online carnatic music classes. and also there were few ilites who wanted to teach on line.

If you know music you can refer to the sites which help in teaching. there are cassettes that teach the basics.

Originally Posted by shanvy

Lavanya,

That reply was when i was in muscat. right now back in chennai and they go to a local teacher here.

You can use skype. there are many people who teach, from chennai.

I am told the sivan academy has online carnatic music classes. and also there were few ilites who wanted to teach on line.

If you know music you can refer to the sites which help in teaching. there are cassettes that teach the basics.

hi shanvy,
thank u for ur reply.i do not know anything about music.but i have a strong zeal to make my daughter learn this.she is 5 yr old.how can i know who will teach here .

thanks
lavanya