The Cleveland Aradhana - in its 35th year - has grown to unbelievable proportions today . This year there were more than 490 participants in different age category for Carnatic music competition.

This year, many students from the local area participated and won the prizes. They also include:

Vikram Krishnamachari is a freshman at Newton North High School. Vikram won the 2nd prize in junior keyboard alapana and 1st prize in kriti. He has been learning to play the piano since he was 6 and continues to learn with Alice Pertchik-Udagawa. Last year, his violin guru, Tara Bangalore, encouraged him to concentrate on playing Carnatic music on the keyboard. He is grateful to her for instilling the discipline to practice. Over the last year, Vikram has been learning Carnatic music from Sriram Gangadharan. Sriram has helped Vikram deconstruct ragams like Ananda Bhairavi and Surutti so that they can be played on the keyboard. His other interests include public transit, airplanes, Math, robotics, carpentry, photography, basketball, and gardening.

Bharathan Sundar is a 3rd grader in Southborough, MA.  He has been
learning the mridangam from Shri. Gaurishankar Chandrashekhar for three years.  Bharathan won the 2nd prize in the mridangam sub-junior competition. Bharathan's interest in the mridangam comes from his guru's dedication and commitment for teaching him this wonderful art.  Bharathan enjoys a variety of sports - in particular tennis, cricket, and soccer.  In addition, he loves playing with his sister and his friends.

Chirag Ganesa won the third prize in the Mridangam competition (Junior category, ages 10-14). Chirag is a freshman at the Shrewsbury High School and is a student of Sri. Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan of Chennai, India, whose playing style is characterized by melodic richness, technical dexterity and clarity at higher tempos. Besides being passionate about mridangam, Chirag is an avid Boston Celtics fan and plays basketball in the several local leagues.  Chirag also is a member on the Shrewsbury High School Robotics team which recently (April 2012) beat out all the competition to become the 2012 Championship Team in Washington D.C. 

Congratulations to all the students who took part in the Cleveland Aradhana!

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