The Aradhana Committee conducted its 12^th Sustaining Sampradaya program this year. They featured two themes – Tribute to Smt. T. Balasaraswathi on March 30^th and tribute to M.L. Vasanthakumari on April 2^nd. T. Balasaraswathi was one of the greatest dancers of all time and M.L. Vasanthakumari was spectacular musician and the youngest female awardee of the Sangitha Kalanidhi award. Three Boston area kids participated this year and they underwent rigorous training by eminent musicians from India both online and in person. The program was headed by Smt. Suguna Varadachari.

Sumitra Rajagopal a 6^th grader at McCall Middle School in Winchester participated in tribute to T. Balasaraswathi program, and she has been learning music since she was 4. She has been learning over Skype from P. Radha and is currently learning from Smt. Aparna Balaji. This is her first time participating in Sustaining Sampradaya. She also participated in the Papanasam Sivan group singing at the Cleveland Aradhana and has been in Papanasam Sivan group past three years. Her hobbies are playing piano, art, reading, and singing.

Medha Jayendran a 5^th grader from Lexington participated in tribute to M.L. Vasanthakumari program. Medha is a student of Smt. Tara Bangalore at the Anubhava school of Music. She has been learning music since she was five years old. She thanks her Guru for teaching her to work hard and to develop a love for music. This is the first time she is participating the Sustaining Sampradaya program and it has provided her an opportunity to learn wonderful classical pieces of M.L. Vasanthakumari. She has won a prize in the prior Cleveland competition and at NEMA’s classical singing competitions. Apart from singing she plays the Cello and learns figure skating.

Bharathan Sundar- Freshman at Algonquin high school, Southboro has been learning mridangam from his guru Sri. GauriShankar Chandrasekhar for 9 years. This year, Bharathan participated in Balasaraswathi stream. Sustaining Sampradaya provided an opportunity for Bharathan to have an exposure to a wide repertoire of rare songs and be able to accompany in a group setting. Bharathan was also a participant in the programs Raghuvasam organized by mridangam gurus Sri. Trivandrum Balaji and Thakadhimi Thakita organized by Sri.Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan. In addition to mridangam, Bharathan plays competitive tennis at USTA tournaments and is part of high school tennis team. 

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