Sruthilayaa School of Carnatic Music presented their Annual day celebrations, “ARPANAM “on Saturday, May 20^th at St. John’s High school in Shrewsbury, MA. The program was well attended.

Guru, Smt. Uma Sankar who is the founder of Sruthilayaa school of Music has been teaching students in the Metro west area for over a decade. When asked about the name choice for the School, she mentioned, “she chose the name Sruthilayaa, as Sruthi is the Matha (Mother) and Layam is the Pitha (Father) of Music”. The program was named ARPANAM, an offering or total Surrender of Mind, Body and Soul to God, with special tribute and emphasis to commemorate the 250^th Birth centenary year of Saint Tyagaraja and also a tribute to Late Shri. M. Balamuralikrishna. 

The event started promptly on time at, 3.30 PM and went until 8.30 PM. The stage was brimming with disciples dressed in brightly colored Ethnic Indian Attire and a Dais dedicated for Idols of Ganesha, Saraswathi and picture of Trinity of Carnatic Music. A senior student from the Music school, Nishant Raj gave a beautiful opening with a Ganesha sloka.

The first segment was Carnatic Choir Ensemble, performed by forty Junior Students. They were short and sweet compositions of Shri. Muttuswamy Dikshitar called Nottuswarams, which are very Rhythmic, fast paced and vibrant numbers notable for the interaction between the western notes and eastern lyrics. ‘Notes Swara’ (nottu being the tamil slang for notes), are based on British tunes but set to Sanskrit devotional lyrics. You can call them Indi Celtic fusion in today’s terms. The beauty about the genre Nottuswara sahithya is, it is very catchy and interesting for the kids in the US and speaks to them in a way they can relate better to their western band lessons at day school. The students were neatly aligned as perfect as dolls lined up in “Golu Padi” and delivered nine Nottuswarams of Dikshitar and four compositions of saint Tyagaraja. The patriotic Jayathi Jayathi Bharatha Matha was aptly chosen to conclude the segment. It was a proud moment to listen to the children who are born and brought up in the US, to stay close to their roots and culture and praise Mother India. Smt. Uma conducted the choir and the kids were so disciplined and organized in rendering the songs, one after the other.

The first segment was followed by interesting Trivia Quiz in Carnatic Music. It was very creatively done by senior students. It was a novel idea to engage the audience while the backstage was getting transitioned for the next segment.

The second segment was the Group Presentations which were performed by senior students. Evvari Bodhana Varnam in ragam Abhogi was flawlessly rendered by the students. The next song made us drench in “Isai Mazhai” (Musical rain), Anandamruthakarshini in ragam Amruthavarshini set to Aadi talam. The segment had a variety of songs ranging from Varnams(Evvari in ragam Abhogi and Viroboni-in ragam Bhairavi, Ata tala varnams), few Krithis, a couple of Thillanas and also Arunagirinadhar’s famous Thirupugazh, “Muthai Tharu pathi Thirunagai” in Ragam Shanmugapriya  which is close to my heart was beautifully rendered by the senior students.

The audience was spellbound by the bold, confident and precise rendering of the varnams, especially Ata tala varnam. One can realize the standards are set pretty high for the students as they render Vatapi Ganapathim with 7 sangathis. Solo (Individual) performances of Thillanas by senior students made this segment stand out with loads of applause. Sogasuga Mridanga Talamu, a composition of Saint Tyagaraja in Ragam Sriranjani, set to Rupaka Talam was the masterpiece of the evening, where senior students demonstrated their Manodharma skills by singing kalpana swaras and just as the name of the song goes, there was a skillfully rendered percussion solo, Thani avarthanam –Mridangam piece. Yet another captivating number” Ma Ramanan, a composition of Papanasan Sivan in Ragam Hindolam set to Rupaka talam was rendered beautifully.

The third segment was performed by an adult group comprising of eight wonderful women, who are busy moms with professional commitments, who are so dedicated to learning Music, despite their busy schedule. They rendered five items. Seetha Kalyana Vaibhogame in Ragam Kurinji was very soothing to the ears and they concluded with Mangalam- Aigiri Nandini, the famous Mahishasuramardini Stothram by Shri. Adi Sankaracharya.

The final segment was a beautiful Guest Performance by students of Smt. Kalaimangai Saravanan from Amudasri School of Dance, followed by Vote of Thanks and Trophy distribution. 

Accompanying artists: Accompaniments play a major role in any Carnatic concert and these budding artists proved that by flawlessly performing and complimenting the songs with their respective instruments. Mridangam-( -Nigel Jayavendra, Nihar Iyengar, Vikas Prabhakar(Students of Dr. Pravin Sitaram), Vasanth Sundaresan ( Student of Sri Gaurishankar Chandrasekhar) and Inesh Vytheeswaran (Student of Sri. Rohan Krishnamurthy) Flute by Sri. Sarat Dontula, Veena by Sri. Srikanth Gomattam. Saxaphone by Vasanth Sundaresan. Violin- Nishant Raj(Student of Smt. Tara Anand), Ramachandran Balakrishnan-(Student of Sri KVS Vinay)

Other important people who made the program run so smoothly are Parent Volunteers and Audio- Sankar Gangaikondan. Photography- Jeyakumar Satyamoorthy. MC: Srividya Ramachandran, Shreya Balaji, Sushant Raj, Harika Lingamarla.

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