PALLAVI OF THE CAPITAL DISTRICT, INC P.O.BOX 1732 LATHAM, NY 12110 PHONE: 518-831-9430 EMAIL:pallavicapital@ureach.com Website: www.cs.rpi.edu/~moorthy/Pallavi2006/ www.pallavi.us Newsletter No 2 June 9, 2006 CELEBRATING THE COMPLETION FIRST DECADE OF NEXT PALLAVI CONCERT WITH COSPONSORSHIP FROM HINDU TEMPLE Nadaswaram Concert on Sunday June 18, 2006 from 2-5 PM Venue: Hindu Temple, 450 Albany Shaker Road, Loudonville Artists: S. Kasim and S. Babu on Nadaswaram Tiruchi Senthilkumar on Thavil (Drums) Please see attached flyer for details. Volunteers Needed for Hosting Artists We are looking for individuals and/or families to host the 3 artists. If you wish to help out in providing hospitality for the artists, please contact Thiyagarajan Subramanian at 831-9430 or email him at tsubrama@nycap.rr.cpm What is Nadaswaram ? Nadaswaram, also spelt Nadhaswaram, and also called Nagaswaram, is one of the most popular classical instruments of south India and the world's loudest non-brass acoustic instrument. It is a wind instrument similar to the Shehnai but larger with a large flaring bell, sometimes metal. It may be swung through the air while playing, creating a doppler effect. In India the nadaswaram is considered to be very auspicious, and it is the key instrument which is played in almost all Hindu marriages and temples. The instrument is usually played in pairs, and accompanied by a pair of drums called thavil. Tom Ross, our local composer-Performing Artist adds the following on Nadaswaram: It's impossible to dislike nagaswaram. Auspicious indeed. Rajaratnam was not only a master but had a hand in transforming the rendition of certain ragas, especially Todi: his endlessly inventive avoidance of pa and saduring alapanas of that raga affected many vocalists. Nagaswaram's sound is powerful enough to cause clarinet players like AKC Natarajan to produce tones on that single-reed almost indistinguishable from the double-reed nagaswaram. Its association with weddings has a correlation with the European (standing) double-reed bagpipe's similar association with nuptials, together with many cousin double-reeds such as gaida in Eastern Europe and algaita in Northern African countries. Tavils, perhaps because of the hours-long religious festivals they often occompany, reach levels of prasthara or rhythmic permutation which even mrdangam players can find daunting, and the give-and-take between these two drum traditions is dynamic and ever-expanding -- literally changing annually. Thyagaraja Aradhana held on May 6 The 10th Thygaraja Aradhana was observed on May 6. The program schedule was similar to what we had in previous years. In the morning, there was group singing of Pancharatna kritis followed by individual presentations. A record number ( 24 children and 16 adults) sang Thyagraja kritis. In the vening , there was vocal recital and parallel slide show on Thyagaraja Ramayanam by TV Ramprasadh and party. The pancharatna kriti team and the list of individual presentations are shown below. Vidya Subramanian and Janaki Krishnamoorthy coordinated the Pancharatna kritis and Individual presentations respectively. Thiyagarajan assisted by a coordinating committee organized the entire one day event. Pancharatna Kriti Group: Dileep Sathyanarayana Haripriya Vinayak Lakshmi Ravichandran Poornima Bhat Saraswathi Komaragiri Seemanti Ramanath Vidya Subramanian (Coordinator) Accompanists: Shiv Kalyanaraman(violin) Janaki Krishnamoorthy Ramani Raghavachari Thiyagarajan Subramanian Gokul Thirumalai (Mridangam) Harihar Iyer ( Mridangam) Individual Presentations Children/Youth Presenters :Shriya Komaragiri ; Ahi Ajayan; Amoha Ramanath; Angeeras Ramanath; Dhanya Thiagarajan; Divya Manoharan; Madhavan Elangovan ; Niranjana Srihari ; Pradhita Kolluru; Sessi Addepalli; Shriya Iyer; Sreelakshmi Addepalli ; Varun Ravichandran ; Nirmala Jayaraman; Rohini Ramani; Vaishnavi Balakrishnan; Pranjal Patel ; Deepali Haldar; Aditya Shaunak Talapatra; ; Anam Mehta Ritam Mehta & Pawan Bhimineni ; Siddharth Dubey; Adult presenters : Lakshmi Ravichandran ;Poornima Ajayan ; Vidya Subramanian Kirtivasan Nagarajan; Thiyagarajan; Tom Ross; Saraswati Komaragiri; Rama Ramani; Janaki Krishnamoorthy; Jaya Sekhar ; Mangala Puranik; Ramanath; Seemanti Ramanath; Shivkumar Kalyanaraman Dileep Satyanarayana; Ramani Raghavachari. GE Matching Gifts Program – An appeal to GE Employees and Retirees In 2003 we received approval from General Electric Corporation to be part of their gift matching program. . GE will match an equal amount of the donated amount. Pallavi thanks all those who donated the amount in the past and hopes they will continue to contribute for 2006 as well. Your donation thus is doubly blessed. If you know any potential donor from GE please promote the Pallavi cause and obtain donations. The step by step procedure to donate and register the amount with GE is outlined on the Pallavi website. New members, renewals and Donors Donors Arul and N. Balasubramanian Sandhya and Ravi Pilar Janaki and M. Mrishnamoorthy Ramani and M. Raghavachari New Members/Renewals Latha Kaliath K. Balasubramanian Ishwara Bhat Bimal Malaviya Lakshmi Ravichandran Dileep Sathyanarayana Sheela Jayasimha Priyanka Seth Rajiv Rajan G.Sadasivam Sheela Rao Sridhar Nath Satish Ukkusuri Devanathan Vembar Gopal Sistla Promoter/Patron Promoter/Sponsor Promoter/Sponsor Promoter/Sponsor Individual Patron Family Family Family Patron Life Family Patron Family Patron Student Family Family Individual Patron Individual Patron Individual patron Family Patron Family GE Matching Gift Donors Dileep sathyanarayana, Ramani Mani, VS Venkataramani, Suresh Rajaraman, PR Subramaniam. Praveen Gramma, Avinash Taware, Rasik Shah, Narayan Nair, Kasi Krishnan, Sheela Jayasimha, and Mohan Manoharan. Sponsors and Patrons and Acknowledgements for Pallavi programs Pallavi organized three major programs this Spring: Hindusthani vocal recital by Ashwini Bhide, Thyagaraja Aradhana and Sowmya’s vocal concerts. All these programs were highly successful. In additoon to the donors mentioned above, Pallavi thanks the following persons who sponsored the various programs. Gattu Rao, Mangala Puranik, Raj Addepalli, Jyoti Swaminathan, Ramani Mani, KR Shankar, Hari Iyer, Shiv Kalyanaraman, PR Subramanian, G. ramanath,P.Ajayan, Veena Chandra, Sekhar Garde, R. Ghoshal, Veena Goel, K. Jayasimha, R.Joshi, Sharad Joshi, H.Kabra, Kajal Lahiri, Nalini Madiwale, Vishnu Mathur, Swatantra Mitta, Jayant Paranjpe, S.Pardanani, R. Parthasarathy, Raje Prasad, and Mukti Sarma thanks are also due to Nalini Madiwale, Janaki Krishnamoorthy and Meena Thiyagarajan for hosting the artists. Pallavi also thanks several volunteers who worked tirelessly for the success of the programs. Pallavi is grateful to Nalini Madiwale for the coordination of the Ashwini Bhide concert. Several members have already renewed their memberships for 2006. Thanks a lot! If you have not already done so, please renew your Pallavi membership soon. If you are not a member, please become one and support classical music activities in the capital district. You can send the check to Pallavi of the Capital District, P. O. Box 1732, Latham, NY 12110. Pallavi has obtained tax exemption status under section 501(c) of the IRS code. Pallavi board members are doing their best to bring in talented musicians to our area. It costs more (especially after September 11, 2001) to bring artists from India. Please consider paying your membership dues early in the year so that we can estimate our revenue position better. Also please become a Family Patron member or even better Promoter/Sponsor class member. The categories of membership and donations remain the same ( No adjustments for inflation!) are noted below: Annual Membership Classes Family Patron (Admission to all concerts free for two people) $120 Individual Patron (Admission to all concerts free for The individual) Family Membership (Pass for two people for one concert) $ 60 Individual Membership (Pass for one concert for The individual) Student Member (Admission to all concerts free) $ 20 Life Member (Admission to all concerts free for two people for Four years) Note: Life membership fee can be paid in two consecutive annual installments of $200 each or in one installment of $400. $400 $ 30 $ 10 Annual Special Donation Categories Patron/Promoter Sponsor/Promoter GE matching Gift Donors Patron/Promoter and Sponsor/Promoter Donors will be recognized at every event of Pallavi during the year as Patrons or Sponsors. MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2006 ____________________________ __________________________ Last name First name Spouse (if applicable) ________________________________ Mailing address __________________________________ Phone: _______________________ E mail address________________________________ Activities you would like to be involved ____________________________________(Some of the activities are : hosting of artists, fund raising, Brochure preparation, Food, collections at the desk, membership promotion, newsletter, mailing etc) Please make your checks payable to “Pallavi of the Capital District” and mail to the above address: Pallavi, PO Box 1732, Latham, NY 12110. $500 $250 S.KASIM and S.BABU are the latest in a Nadswaram tradition preserved for more than 300 years by a great family of musicians from Karawadi in Andhra Pradesh. They were jointly trained by the legendary maestro Dr.Sheikh Chinna Moulana Sahib (their grand father). They have accompanied him for several years in concerts. Kasim-Babu concerts in India and other foreign countries in Europe like France, Germany, Russia, Finland as well as Sri Lanka & Malaysia were widely acclaimed. They perform in the Thanjavur Bhani- the same style of the one and only T.N.Rajaratnam pillai in pursuit of which Sheikh Chinna Moulana Sahib (himself a famous Nadaswaram artist) moved to Tamil Nadu and their unique gayaki style of rendition is exciting and full of depth. Kasim has a degree in physics but decided on a musical career to uphold the three hundred year musical tradition of his family. HONOURS AND AWARDS S.KASIM and S.BABU currently Asthana Vidwans of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams, Sri Sarada Peetham of Sringeri Math. Sri Kanchi Sankaracharya honoured them on the occasion of Jayanthi Mahotsav. S.KASIM: 1984-Awarded Music Scholarship by Government of India. 1987- Mother Theresa awarded “ Kala Saraswathy” title at Hyderabad. 2002- Gold Medal&Citation Award by Pongu TamilDevelopmentTrust. 2003- Kalaimamni Award from the Govt of Tamil Nadu. Currently running “Saradha Nadaswara Sangeetha Ashram” founded by Sheikh Chinna Moulana imparting Nadaswaram training to students. As founder of “Dr. Chinna Moulana Trust” presents Nadaswarams to deserving students & purses to senior indigent artists in Nadaswaram fraternity. .Babu troupe he has been playing in Tirupathi for over two decades. He is recipient of several awards and titles. TRICHY S.SENTHIL KUMAR: Accompanied Sheikh Chinna Moulana Sahib on his tours of Europe, Finland, Sri Lanka. Has accompanied leading artists like A.K.C.Natarajan & Haridhwaramangalam A.K.Palanivel among others. At present a regular member of Kasim-Babu troupe & has taken part with them in all major festivals at Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams. He is recipient of several awards and titles. WRPI Melodies of India is back This is to let everyone know that after a semester-long hiatus, Melodies of India is back this summer on WRPI, As before this will be aired from 10-12 noon on Sundays through 91.5 FM