On May 20th , Sruthilayaa School of Music celebrated its Annual Day at the Millbury High School. There was excitement in the air as students of Smt. Uma Sankar, ranging from 5 years to young adults and adults, were getting ready to perform. The auditorium was packed with family members of students and others eager to watch and enjoy the performance. The students were all seated on one side of the auditorium and, after their performance, came and sat on the other side of the auditorium. This helped minimize the distraction and is a testament to Uma’s organizational skills and her ability to plan a successful program.

Smt. Uma welcomed the performers, the audience members and the accompanists and percussionists. She mentioned that Sruthilayaa School of Music was celebrating its 4 th Annual Day. This fledgling organization led by Uma, has already produced experienced singers such as Nishant Raj, who went to UCONN last year, and started a Carnatic music club, called Sanskriti there. A former student of Smt. Tara Anand, he has performed at KHMC and at other venues. He continues to learn violin from Tara Anand, while working on his vocal singing skills and training with Uma Sankar. On this day, he accompanied all the other singers on violin and then sang with his brother, to provide a fitting finale to a great evening.

It was endearing to listen to very young children sing in unison and with confidence. 5 little ones started off the show with Dikshitar’s “Sakthi Sahitaganpathim.” They continued with another composition of Dikshitar’s, “Syamala Meenakshi” and sang the swaram and sahityam for both these songs. They were followed by another group of who sang Dikshitar’s “Ramajanardhana” in Sankarabharanam followed by “Pankajamukha” also in Sankarabharanam and Thyagaraja’s “Sarasara samare” in Kuntalavarali. Sankarabharanam seemed to be the popular raga of the day as the next song was “Varaleela gana lola” by Saint Thyagaraja.

I must mention the percussionists for the evening – Kasinaath Balagurunath and Bharathan, disciples of Sri. Gaurishankar Chandrashekhar. Their percussion skills belied their tender age – they performed like mature, experienced mridangam players and even displayed their talent by doing the thani avartanam. Nishant, on the violin, also demonstrated the perfect temperament as he was accompanying beginners and amateurs but he did not overshadow their performance.

The children who sang “Mythreem Bhajatha” by Sr. Adi Sankaracharya pronounced the Sanskrit words very clearly and that enhanced the beauty of their rendering. They also sang Purandaradasa’s geetham, “Varaveena” in Mohanam. It was astonishing to see children learning geetham also able to perform an intricate ragamalika like “Mythreem Bhajatha.” The concert was planned to commemorate Smt. M.S. Subbalakshmi’s birth centenary year, so a number of songs that were selected were those popularized by her.

Next was a group singing Navaragamalika varnam and “Gajavadana Beduve, Purandaradasa’s kriti in Hamsadhwani. This was followed by “Kaatrinile varum geetham,” and “Kanjadalayadakshi” in Kamalamanohari. After the tweens’ performance came the performance of 3 young ladies, who gave a mellifluous rendering of Adi Sankaracharya’s Ganesha Pancharatnam and “Vinayaka Ninnu” in Hamsadhwani, a composition of Sri Veenani Kuppaiyer.

Then came the icing on the cake, a performance by the Raj brothers, Nishant and Sushant, Uma’s star disciples. Nishant, who had been donning the hat of a violinist for the first part of the program, now took the stage as the vocalist, and gave a dazzling performance with his brother. They sang one of the Pancharatna kritis, “Jagadananda karaka”, and the audience was spellbound. They also sang Lalgudi Jayaraman’s Maand thillana. The finale pieces were sung by young girls who sounded mature beyond their years, as they sang “Vaatapi,” “Sobillu”, and “Kurai Ondrum Illai”, (one of my alltime favorite songs) and culminated with Bhadrachala Ramadas’ mangalam.

I have noticed in previous concerts too that Smt. Uma Sankar’s students really look up to her (literally and figuratively) as she sits right in front and encourages them with her beautiful smile and talam. As her students, Sushant Raj and Shreya Balaji, gave a vote of thanks, they referred to her as an inspirational teacher, and that she is!

There was a special treat in store for the audience at the end when guest performers Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy and her daughter Vaidehi Moorthy gave a mesmerizing Bharatnatyam performance. Sripriya is the founder of Abhinaya Natya Sala, in Ashland. She and her daughter danced beautifully to a thillana in Sivarnajani ragam choreographed by Sr. Madurai R. Muralidharan. This was a fitting ending to a very enjoyable evening of music.

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