(Click here to buy tickets for the show http://palakurthifoundation.com/)

Anuradha Palakurthi is called Indian nightingale of New England. She trains Hindustani Vocals under Vidushi Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar. Ustad Nishat Khan of Agra-Etawah Gharana called her “the finest singer of Indian origin since Asha Bhosale-ji” for her range of singing across the spectrum of Bollywood genres. 

Anuradha has recorded playback for South Indian films. In April 2016 she was the featured female singer with Kumar Sanu on his USA tour’s Boston segment. 

Anuradha recorded a duet with Hariharan for Ekal Vidyalaya - a song written by Sunayana Kachroo and composed by A R Rehman's Guitarist Prasanna, Drummer Sivamani and a group of 14 multiple-Grammy winning musicians from across the globe. 

Anuradha co-hosts a weekly Radio Music India show on WRCA 1330. She currently serves as the Chairperson of MIT's Heritage Arts of South Asia (MITHAS). 

Her charitable foundation, the Anuradha Palakurthi Foundation, supports the promotion of Indian culture primarily in New England by providing financial support to programs, artists and organizers of events where Indian culture is performed/exhibited.

Ranjani, it’s great being with you again – Thank you for the kind compliment on the quality of our shows. It is a tribute to the world-class band led by Kamlesh Bhadkamkar that we in Boston (and also in Columbus) remember so fondly. 

It is amazing that Indians align significant personal experiences to specific Bollywood compositions. The degree overlap of public music to private sentiment is almost unique to our culture. Over decades different singers’ styles were defaulted to specific emotions – despite their attempts to go contrarian. Music has notes, lyrics have substance but it was singers who brought emotions to a common person’s instinct. In this program Suresh Wadkar-Ji, Mithilesh and I will try to reconnect those emotions to instincts for the listening audience. 

It was not easy! Not just the compositions, but picking the subset of playback singers. We simply cannot cover them all in 3 hours. In the end we decided to pick songs that the audience would probably be familiar with, those that show the stamp of the singer, and those that covered the wide gamut of emotions. We had to remove those songs that the audiences already heard from our earlier shows (and yes, we’ve included a few singer-contrarian numbers too). We are hopeful that the audience will travel the journey with us.

(1) Suresh-Ji singing not just his own songs but also so many of other legendary singers’ songs  

(2) Given Suresh-Ji’s contribution to Marathi Music, there was no escaping a Marathi duet with him– my first one; and a surprise few lines from a regional song 

(3) The audience will need to tick singers off as the show progresses – and let us know who we were forced to drop

 

Waking up at strange times, using Whatsapp, Skype, Facetime (how did we practice music without these tools?), saying Good Morning at the wrong times, speaking with groups of 20 in India, speaking with Suresh-ji who has been a constant source of encouragement and humbling lessons from my Guru, Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar. 

The other organizational matters like Visas, Venues, Lights, Instruments, Travel, Hospitality, Ticketing (the first tine we are charging for entry in Boston)  are being taken care of by an exceptional group of our friends – Manisha Jain, Rekha Palriwala, Bhavana Motiwala, Jawed Wahid, Rajesh Godbole, Kristin Hagan, Preetesh Shrivastava, Harish Dang, Eshani Shah, Sweta Mepani, Nageshas, and others. In Columbus Sandhya Singhal, Arzaana Daruwala, Rama Gudhe, Vinnie Bakshi, Lata Koneru and others. These great friends help me focus on music, ideation and presentation.

I have just gotten over the fear of speaking with him! The actual singing will be when he comes to Boston. (So, please pray for me). 

When we met him in New Jersey a few weeks ago, I heard him just take off on a complex Madan Mohan-ji’s composition with such ease that I was dumbstruck. That was stark demonstration of the challenge that lies ahead personally for me.

Whenever I hear Suresh ji sing, I am always struck by the melody in his voice and his flawless alignment to Sur – I find that his most exceptional quality. That I can even imagine being with him on the same stage is entirely due to my Guru Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar. I owe her all my progress. When I asked Arati-ji if I should dare ask him to sing with me, she approved saying “That will be a huge learning experience for you”.  At the risk of sounding ostentatious, I declined opportunities to sing with many other popular Bollywood singers – preferring to grow as a singer rather than seek short term popularity. 

First and most importantly, I am so happy to have come to know Anuradha-ji because she is a very talented and well trained singer. 

And she is a student of today’s greatest Indian female singer – Arati  Ankalikar-Tikekar. 

Anuradha has been trained so very well that she can sing beautifully in all the styles of music. I am so excited to sing with her in Boston and Columbus concerts. I only wish I had known her before - she could have sung with me in many of my concerts not just in the US but all over the world. 

She created the show, conceived the program flow and when I saw her interesting selection of songs, I was amazed -  the songs are rich with emotion and melody. The list clearly shows her great love for high quality music. I am looking forward to perform with her in the concerts organized by my dear friend Mr. Prashanth Palakurthi.

Techno influenced music is also good but ephemeral. For short durations it can move your feet to dance but will not touch your heart or move your soul. Techno music will never take you towards meditative bliss. Techno music serves a different purpose - and cannot be a substitute or replacement. 

The key to get success is very simple -  â€œRIYAAZ,  RIYAAZ AND ONLY RIYAAZ”.  Goddesses Saraswati-ma is careful about a hardworking child and will offer her grace.  Though success does not appear to be inevitable, keep heart - Some get it soon, some later but it will happen.

Constant Riyaaz keeps one ready to receive such blessings & keeps you in form so that any type of music can be easily sung .

Ranjani, Indians are the wealthiest minority in the USA. As in the past, we are trying hard to direct part of their giving to Veterans causes. 

These people fight for our freedoms in such terrible places and put their lives on the line for us to enjoy our freedoms – even to listen to our own music. We are hopeful that Indians will give in greater numbers to Veterans causes. My personal interest of course stems from being a member of what the Americans call a ‘Gold Star’ family – I lost my Fighter Pilot brother, Sqn Ldr Ravindranath Rajagopal, in action and on the border.

For this year’s concert we have picked a Worcester, MA based charity, Veterans Inc (www.veteransinc.org). They provide housing, employment, health and wellness and family assistance to needy veterans. Our society needs to make a more concerted effort to bring these veterans back into civil life smoothly.

Anuradha Palakurthi Foundation is a DAF of The Giving Back Fund. 

The Giving Back Fund (GBF) is a national public charity that creates and professionally manages charitable foundations and other philanthropic programs for athletes, entertainers, business entrepreneurs, and corporations. Since our founding in 1997, GBF has created an important niche in expanding and diversifying philanthropy, particularly among young people, women and people of color. Our unique structure allows donors to direct more of their charitable dollars to causes they care about and less to administrative overhead. To date, The Giving Back Fund has provided philanthropic consulting, management and programming to more than 200 athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and other high net worth individuals. GBF has overseen the distribution of more than $30,000,000 in charitable grants within the United States and other countries, and has developed dozens of unique scholarship, mentoring, medical, arts, and other philanthropic programs. For additional information, please visit www.givingback.org.