The ThyagarajaAradhana at Chinmaya Maruthi had a very special presentation where senior students of local Carnatic Music and Dance teachers presented Thiagaraja’s work. The Carnatic Ensemble featuring students of teachers Durga Krishnan, Tara Anand, Aparna Balaji, Gaurishankar Chandrashekar,Neyveli Narayanan and Pravin Sitaram was absolutely brilliant. The second half was a brilliant solo Bhartanatyam margam by Shriya Srinivas, student of Aishwarya Balasubramanium and Sridevi Thirumalai. 

The event was held on Feb 3 at the Chinmaya Maruti auditorium. In the spirit of collaboration the students of local teachers who had completed their Arangetram and continued training at an advanced level came together to present the Kritis of Thyagaraja. Listening to the presentation, it was hard to believe that they were young children in their teens who were all trained in the US. From Neravals to Swarams and Thani Avartanam they were brilliant and mesmerized the audience. Participants were Mahedhar Athreya, Sadhana Venkatesh, Sahana Venkatesh, Medha Jayendran, Utsavi James, Shreshta Rajesh, Amrita Pai and Srivatsan Mukuntraj. 

Shirya Srinivas presented a solo margam based on Thyagaraja Kritis. The music ensemble consisted of Hari Shanmugam on the Mridangam, Vocalist Mahathi Athreya , Violinist Pranav Swaroop and Nattuvangam by Guru Aishwarya Balasubramanian. Shriya opened the event with a Pushpanjali followed by Raghunayaka. Sancharis depicting the stories of Ahalya and Jatayu was beautiful.  The famous composition Sadhinchane was reworked in a Varnam format. Many interesting Sancharis were presented.  Depiction of Hanuman crossing the ocean was interestingly depicted by Shriya. She concluded with a Dwijawanti Tillana. It was wonderful to see the ease with which Shriya presented the Margam. Her Jathis were precise and Abhinaya beautiful. The choreography by Aishwarya Balasubramanian and the fantastic musical ensemble deserves special applause. 

Shashi Dwaraknath applauded the artists for their efforts. Durga Krishnan who coordinated the program said that she was so impressed with the quality of the program and the passion of the students to pursue the arts despite their busy life at college and work. 

For the audience the program was a real treat. We look forward to such programs in the future.