Guruguha Vaibhavam 2024

Guruguha Vaibhavam, celebrating the priceless compositions of the Saint composer, Muthuswamy Dikshitar was conducted and performed by a group of Carnatic music enthusiasts at the Parvathi Parameshwara temple in Littleton, MA, from Saturday, April 27 through Sunday, April 28, 2024. The program reached greater heights, with two full days of performances with more than 100 performers, in addition to three concerts by the music teachers and experts in the community.

The program started on the auspicious day of Sankatahara Chaturthi with a Ganapathi pooja performed by the priest, Sri Bhavannarayana Dendukuri, to commence the event. This program is designed to highlight the lyrics of Dikshitar’s compsotions, and Sri R. Balakrishnan, from Thiruvarur, and Smt. Sudha Balakrishnan took special interest to prepare slides on every composition presented, highlighting the kshetrams and lyrics: https://tinyurl.com/GGV2024-Slides .

The program started aptly on Ganesha’s day, with compositions on Ganesha by students of Smt. Aparna Balaji, presenting Dikshitar’s classics. That set the stage for a fantastic concert performed by Smt. Aparna Balaji, Sharada Krishnan and Shri. Saikripa Krishnagopal featuring many compositions of Dikshitar popularized by the late Shri O S Thyagarajan.

Several individual performers presented some of the well known as well as rare classics of Dikshitar on vocal , violin accompanied by Mridangam. Following that, students of Smt Chitra Sridhar presented nottuswarams on vocal and violin. The Swarajali group of Chinmaya Metrowest concluded the day with a popular and rare  kritis on Lakshmi, Rama, Hanuman, Krishna.

Supported by Parvati Parameshwara temple, it was encouraging that teachers took major initiatives this year to share their music with an audience who are future musicians. The first of those was Smt. Aparna Balaji’s concert on day 1, setting the stage for the next day.

Sunday continued the rhythm starting with individual performers, followed by a thematic presentation on Thyagaraja Vibhakti kritis of Dikshitar by a team of young musicians Dr. Shriya Srinivasan, Naren Sundararajan, Sharada Krishnan and Kumaresh. In addition to performing these rare kritis, Shriya explained the hidden lyrical wonders in these compositions to the audience. Following more individual performers, we had students of Shri Raghul Ravichandran, who presented special melodies of Diskhitar, including a group rendition of a very rare composition in the Hindustani raga Ramkali, which was brought to south India by Dikshitar.

We then had Shri Jitendra Kishore and his students present Dikshitar compositions from his school. Many of them traveled more than 90 miles from Connecticut specially for this event, showing their dedication to make this special event.

We then had students of Smt Kamakshi Kalyanasundaram and Smt. Uma Shankar present Nottuswarams, krithis on Durga-Lakshmi -Saraswathi and Panchalinga Kshetra krithis. It was a grand collaborative effort by the two teachers and the children amazed all of us with their clear diction of the complex lyrics and rendition.

The laya vinyasa concert was a planned highlight this year. The importance of laya and the variety embedded in the compositions are well known. In this year’s event seven teachers/artists of music in New England highlighted a rare tala, getting together on stage, with a fantastic elaboration (Smt Kamakshi Kalyanasundaram, Smt Uma Sankar, Sri Kalyan Gopalakrishnan, Sri Pravin Sitaram, Sri Mali Santhanakrishnan, Sri Sudarshan Chakravarthy, Sri Gaurish Chandrasekhar). It is a very rare event that four percussion teachers took the initiative to present such a special treat on a rare tala. Mishra Jhampa (10 beats) was presented with each teacher  taking up a different nadai (pulses per beat) to explore the tala. A special pallavi was composed by Smt. Kamakshi Kalyanasundaram for the audience, many of whom called and canceled their other engagements to immerse in this special treat. Shri Sastry Pulya and other support staff/volunteers from the temple provided an audio system that kept the audience at their seats, both onsite and all over the world. The entire program was cast live on YouTube and FaceBook with several viewers glued to the program.

What can be more apt for a conclusion of this year's event than a duet Veena concert featuring duet mridangam accompaniment? Another special concert by Smt. R Ramani (a renowned vainika who we are fortunate to have in our community, Kalai Mamani, Sangeet Natak Academy awardee), and Shri. Ram Naidu (who is well known to us and a prime disciple of renowned vainika late Smt Vidya Sankar). Accompanied by our own Shri. Pravin Sitaram and Shri Mali Santhanakrishnan, they took us to a different dimension, rendering very special kritis of Dikshitar.

It was heartwarming to see how people travelled from all over New England to participate and offer their musical tribute. The following table summarizes the details of the krithis, performers, their gurus, and accompanying artists, all bringing their unique soulfullness and adding to the ambiance:

The performances over the two days are summarized in the tables below:

The gurus of the various performers include Vidushi Smt. Aparna Balaji, Vid. Shri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Vidushi Smt. Yogam Santhanam, Vid. Angari AVK Rajasimham, Vid. OV Subramaniam, Vidushi. Smt. S Bhagyalakshmy, Vid. Shri. KVS Vinay, Shri. Ramachandran Balakrishna, Vid. Sripriya Markandan, Vidushi Smt. Sudha Balakrishnan, Vid. Shri. Vittal Ramamurthy, Smt. Savithri Kaundinya, Vidushi. Smt. Chitra Sridhar, Vidushi Smt. Geetha Murali, Vid. Palghat Ramprasad, Vidushi. Srilatha Sundararajan, Vid. Shri. Raghul Ravichandran, Vid. Shri. Jithendra Kishore, Vidushi. Smt. Kamakshi Kalyanasundaram, Vidushi Smt. Seethalakshmi Narayanan, Vidushi Smt. Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam, Vid. Shri. OS Thyagarajan, Vid. Padmabhushan Madurai Shri TN Seshagopalan, Vidushi Smt. Shantha Balasubramanian, Vidushi Smt. TR Balamani, Vidushi Smt. Vasundra Rajagopalan, Vid. Shri. Suryaprakash Ramachandran, Vidushi Smt. Uma Shankar, Vidushi Smt. Saraswati, Vid. Shri KLN Sastry, Vidushi Smt. Ramani Venkatraman, Vidushi Smt. Ranganayaki Rajagopalan, Vidushi Smt. R Vedavalli and Vidushi Smt. Vidya Shankar

Various artistes provided accompaniment to enhance the effect and energize the presentations:

The compere eliminates all distractions by ensuring that all attention is focused throughout on the performances on the stage. Guruguha Vaibhavam 2024 Boston was extremely lucky to have Smt. Jeyanthi Ghatraju as the compere, with Smt Savithri Kaundinya and teachers filling in as needed, to keep to the schedule for the two days.

Elaborate support and arrangements were provided by the volunteers of the temple, particularly temple priest Bhavannarayana garu, Sri Sastry Pulya, Sri Mahesh Gattu and Sri Ravi Sivasankaran, who took it upon themselves to make this a temple event, through live streaming the entire event, by being there throughout the program, and by arranging for fresh food in the canteen..

Photos and video clips from the event are available on the 'Guruguha Vaibhavam Boston' public Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/599292308441007). Participants and attendees are encouraged to post their video clips and photos here.

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