Cleveland, OH has become a major destination every spring for famous classical musicians from India and around the world for 'Aradhana' (www.aradhana.org). As part of Aradhana celebration, every year there are competitions in different category in 'carnatic' classical music and kids from all over North America prepare and compete for the same. This year there were more than 430 kids competing in different category, participating and winning this prestigious competition gives lot of confidence to budding talents. Six of the winners at this competition came from New England and that is indeed a source of pride.

Srivatsan Raghavan, a student of Smt.Tara Anand, and a junior from Sharon High School, Massachusetts, bagged the first prize in the Ragam, Thanam and Pallavi category of the competition in this years Tyagaraja Aradhana Festival at Cleveland. Though the initial  duration for this category of the competition, was 5 minutes, the judges felt it was too short a time and increased the time limit to 30 minutes and also raised the difficulty level. The participants were asked to demonstrate the intricacies of not only Pallavi but also on other aspects of Ragam / Tanam / Kalpana Swarams which demonstrates the improvisation aspect of Carnatic Music.

Latika Sridhar a freshman at Needham High won the Second Prize at the Pallavi Competition . "I think I can speak for both myself as well as Sriva that the judges changing the pallavi competition to a full-out ragam thanam pallavi competition at the last minute was a real wake up call. We had to respond to the testing by the judges and give all we could without practice beforehand. The only thing that enabled us to rise to the challenge was the rigor with which we were trained by our guru, Smt. Tara Anand" says Latika.

Rasika Murali, age 15, a sophomore at Norwood High School in Norwood, MA  has been learning violin from Smt.Tara Anand for the past 8 years and vocal music from her mother Geetha Murali for the past 10 years.  "This year was special because I got to take part in the accompaniment category where I had to play while the judges, who are renowned musicians, sang. It was a thrilling experience:" says Rasika who won the first place in the  krithi and alapanai categories and a special mention in the concert category.

Avinash Shukla is a senior at Acton Boxbourough Regional High School and has recieved admission to the prestigious Berkley College of music. He won special mention awards in both Neraval and Kalpana Swaram Category.  "Neraval requires interpretation of emotions as intended in the kriti by the composer. Not knowing the language it is very hard to emote but with my teacher's (Aparna Balaji's)  help and support I have been able to overcome that hurdle.  Kalpana Swarams require you to imagine the swarams or notes and create patterns spontaneously. Singing this format before judges like T.M. Krishna,  S. Sowmya, Nyvelli Santhanagopalan was an honor in and of itself" says Avinash.

Prayuth Naduthota, Freshman and High Honour student in Westford Academy High School learning flute is hard  since there is no flute teacher in this area . He uses Skype and other tools to learn from his Guru and famous flaurist Sri VK Raman in Varginia and other Guru Sri Mysore A Chandan Kumar in Mysore, India. Prayuth got first places in all 3 categories (kriti, Alapana and Kalpana swaram and it was exciting to get the award from the Flute Maestro Dr. N. Ramani.

Vighnesh Viswanathan, a student of Smt Tara Anand  was awarded the second place for the krithi category in the Cleveland Aradhana that was held in Cleveland from April 9-19.Vighnesh is an eight grader from Stony brook middle school in Westford, MA .

These kids prove without a doubt that the New England soil is fertile ground for excellence in Carnatic Music and that some of the finest Musical Gurus are from New England.  Lokvani tips its hat to the Gurus and the students.

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