The New England based, non-profit, Karnatic Hindustani Music Circle - popularly known as “KHMC”, kicked off the New Year by hosting it’s annual concert on Saturday, Jan 13th, 2018. This free concert was attended by over 200 music enthusiasts who enjoyed a variety of classical based vocal and instrumental performances by local junior and senior artists. This tradition of an annual concert was started in 2016 when veteran founder members Dr. Suresh Mathur and Smt Durga Krishnan were felicitated for their major contributions towards the organisation. They helped foster Indian classical music and provide a platform to local artists to connect, showcase and educate the community. 

  

The program invocation was done by the melodious compositions sung  by  Amritha Pai and Mahathi Athreya, the students of Aparna Balaji of Abhyaas school of music. They graciously presented two compositions. The first one was Vallabha - Begada Ragam in Rupaka Talam and composed by Muthuswami Dikshithar, and the second one was Vande Mataram in Ragam Desh set to 4 beat cycle, composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. 

Next, was the Hindustani segment which was guided by Shuchita Rao. In the Hindustani Junior segment three compositions in Raga Saraswati were presented. The first composition was a Dhrupad in praise of Goddess Saraswati set to a seven beat percussion cycle Teevra taal composed by Padmashri Umakant Gundecha. The second composition was a traditional Khayal in praise of Lord Ram set to sixteen beat cycle Teen Taal and the final song  was Saraswati Namavali which described the twelve names of Goddess Saraswathi, set to eight beat cycle Keherwa Taal. This segment was presented by Adrita Mukherji, Anoushka Banerjee Arnav Vedagarbha, Aroh Jugulum, Anush Jugulum, Neil Yabbanavar, Meghana Sen, Malavika Krishnan, Pranesh Sivakumar, Rishi Shetty, Sara Parulekar, Sarla Sharma, Jairaj Sharma, Tanya Kommaraju, Tanvi Shah, Tamoghna Kommaraju and was led by Anusha Kulkarni. The group was accompanied on the harmonium by Shrihan Yadav, on the tabla by Pranav Ghatraju and on the manjira by Jeyanthi Ghatraju.  In the Hindustani senior segment two traditional Dhrupad compositions followed by a Tarana in Raga Malkauns was presented. The first Dhrupad was in praise of Lord Ganesh ”Jayati Jayati Shree Ganesh” and set to twelve beat cycle Choutaal. The second Dhrupad “Shankar Girijapati” was in praise of Lord Shiva whose neck is adorned with a garland of skulls and bones. The mighty river Ganga flows out of his matted locks and the three eyed lord of Mount Kailash carries the trident as his weapon. The final composition was a tarana set to sixteen beats cycle teentaal composed by Shuchita Rao. The  group of vocalists included Jyoti Sharma, Shreedeep K Bhachech, Rebecca Gray, Satya Rao, Varsha Paranjape, Akash Bulbule, Chaitrali Kate, Swapna Kommidi with Harmonium accompanied by Ravi Mosurkal and Pranav Ghatraju on the Tabla. The presentation surely immersed the audience in a Bhakti Rasa while experiencing the Dhrupad style of singing. 

An energetic fusion presentation between Hindustani and Carnatic style called “Taal-Vadhya”,  was given by two up and coming percussionists of Boston area - Varun Chandramouli on Mridangam and Pranav Ghatraju on Tabla. They discussed the history behind the mridangam and tabla, typical beats or talams that are played and how the playing style changes depending on the type of program (i.e. instrumentalist, vocalist, solo). They did a quick solo to demonstrate the differences. They also  played a Jugalbhandhi that was thoroughly enjoyed by the spell bound audience. 

In the final presentation, the “Swara Raga Lahari” music group presented an array of  melodious Carnatic style compositions. This group was started by Valli Amaravadi exclusively for adults 20 years and above who get to learn semi classical & easy classical songs.

The presentation started with Nata Ragalapana by Valli and krithi Mahaganapathim composed by sri Muthuswamy Dikshitar set to Chaturasra jathi Eka talam, Adi Lakshmeem in Ragam Revathi composed by Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma set to Eka talam, Pahi Pahimaam in Ragam Jonpuri composed by Sri Narayanatheertha set to Adi talam, Kaapi ragalapana by Valli followed by krithi Mathsya Kurma Varaha composed by Shri Annamacharya set to Adi talam, Hanauma Hanuma composed by Shri Akella Subhrahmanyam in Ragam Aarabhi set to Adi talam. The vocalists included Srinivas Balabhadrapatruni, Padmaja Balabhadrapatruni, Suseela Balabhadrapatruni, Anu Kare, Aparna Pulya, Bhanu Yenisetti, Bhargavi Kallamadi, Chaitanya Kichannagari, Gayatri Bapanapalli, Geetha Cheerla, Geetha Setty, Kavithaparni Chivukula, Kiranmai Chaturvedula, Lakshmi Bala, Latha Sadineni, Lavanya Pakhala, Lakshmi Neerukonda, Madhavi Seeram, Madhuri Ghanta, Manjula Dharmala Mukka, Meena Kasi, Neeraja Thiruveedhula, Prathibha Kotha, Raji Madala, Ramadevi Madivada, Ramanjula Reddy Kothachervu, Renuka Garre, Sandhya Punreddy, Saritha Janaswamy, Sharada Vetsa, Shilpa Bandaru, Sirisha Bala, Sowjanya Alapati, Sri Ramya Vuppuluri, Srilakshmi Gudala, Sumana Sriprasad, Suneetha Kambhampati, Swapna Mamidenna, Uma Shankar, Vasavi Kattamudi,Vasundhara Reddy. The highly acclaimed and sought after local artists Krishnan Parameshwaran  and Mali Santhanakrishnan accompanied them on the Violin and Mridangam respectively. Shri. Srinivas Balabhadrapathruni coordinated the team with talam, Sahithya, bhava and musical knowledge.

Vandana Rao and Vaishnavi  Kondapalli acknowledged and felicitated all the Carnatic and  Hindustani artists who had performed in various  KHMC concerts in the year 2017, respectively. Mali Santhanakrishnan and Siva SanthanaKrishnan felicitated all the Hosts and Volunteers including the Media partners Lokwani who make the KHMC concert possible each year. The event was anchored by Jeyanthi Ghatraju and Jyoti Sharma. The precious moments were photographed  by Neil Pandit   and the videograpy was done by Kanth Ghatraju The months of preparation and efforts put in by the KHMC committee was very well appreciated by music enthusiasts! 

The New England area is blessed to have numerous of young and experienced musically talented community members, teachers and artists, and KHMC has played a key role in bringing them all under one umbrella while nurturing and preserving the classical music art form at the grass root level. The current  KHMC committee consists of Mali Santhanakrishnan, Siva Santhanakrishnan, Vandana Rao, Vaishnavi Kondapalli, Jyoti Sharma, Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Pradeep Shukla, Shuchita Rao, Uma Sankar ,Varun Chandramouli, Smitha Krishnan and Abhilash Mehta. The membership is free and open to all.

Like the KHMC Facebook page for staying in tune with the upcoming concerts.