Carnatic music teachers in the DC area
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It's been a couple of years since I've lived in that area, but here's a list of several teachers.
Maragatham Ramaswamy (http://www.ragamalika.net/about.html)
She is mainly a disciple of S. Kalyanaraman but has also learned from K.V.N, TMT and Ramnad Krishnan (according to the website). She also graduated from the Music College of Madras with a Gold Medal and has won several awards.
The main criticism of her is that she rarely offers her students the opportunity to sing, asside from the students that have been with her for 15+years. Her younger/newer students rarely get opportunities to sing in the greater DC area at aradhana festivals etc. She also doesn't teach swarams to students until they have been with her for a long long long time. Now, I haven't been in the area for 5+ years, so perhaps things have changed. She probably lives closest to you. She also has one of her students teach, according to the website.
Nirmala Ramaswamy . She is a student of B. Rajam Iyer and has taught students for many years. She is known as a very patient and affectionate teacher. She has many programs during the year and she offers her students a lot of opportunities to sing even at a young age. Many of her students (both NRI's whove started learning upon relocating here, and 2nd generation students) have gone on to give 1-hr concerts and even a couple have given full 3-hr concerts with RTP! She is also willing to teach younger students ragam and swarams. She lives in Bethesda, which is probably ~15-20 mins away from Northern Virginia.
Smt. Usha Char runs Nadatarangini, (www.Nadatarangini.org). She is a disciple of Sri Anoor S. Ramakrishna, a well-known violinist from Banglore. She is well known by many music circles as she used to be the Program Executive at ALl India Radio in Banglore in the early 80's. She also organizes a lot of programs. Her classes are all in groups (3-6 students usually), and they perform as groups as well. Some of her advanced students have given vocal concerts as well. She is known as a tougher teacher, but very knowledgeable. One point of criticism is that she has an unabashedly Karnatica slant, and her Tygaraja Aradhana festivals only invite vmusicians from Karnatica. She lives in Olney, which is probably the furthest from the No. Va area.
I hope this provides a starting point for your search for a teacher. I tried to provide some perspective, as I remember, on the pro's and con's of each teacher.
If you would like, I could provide some info about violin, flute, and vocal teachers as well.
Maragatham Ramaswamy (http://www.ragamalika.net/about.html)
She is mainly a disciple of S. Kalyanaraman but has also learned from K.V.N, TMT and Ramnad Krishnan (according to the website). She also graduated from the Music College of Madras with a Gold Medal and has won several awards.
The main criticism of her is that she rarely offers her students the opportunity to sing, asside from the students that have been with her for 15+years. Her younger/newer students rarely get opportunities to sing in the greater DC area at aradhana festivals etc. She also doesn't teach swarams to students until they have been with her for a long long long time. Now, I haven't been in the area for 5+ years, so perhaps things have changed. She probably lives closest to you. She also has one of her students teach, according to the website.
Nirmala Ramaswamy . She is a student of B. Rajam Iyer and has taught students for many years. She is known as a very patient and affectionate teacher. She has many programs during the year and she offers her students a lot of opportunities to sing even at a young age. Many of her students (both NRI's whove started learning upon relocating here, and 2nd generation students) have gone on to give 1-hr concerts and even a couple have given full 3-hr concerts with RTP! She is also willing to teach younger students ragam and swarams. She lives in Bethesda, which is probably ~15-20 mins away from Northern Virginia.
Smt. Usha Char runs Nadatarangini, (www.Nadatarangini.org). She is a disciple of Sri Anoor S. Ramakrishna, a well-known violinist from Banglore. She is well known by many music circles as she used to be the Program Executive at ALl India Radio in Banglore in the early 80's. She also organizes a lot of programs. Her classes are all in groups (3-6 students usually), and they perform as groups as well. Some of her advanced students have given vocal concerts as well. She is known as a tougher teacher, but very knowledgeable. One point of criticism is that she has an unabashedly Karnatica slant, and her Tygaraja Aradhana festivals only invite vmusicians from Karnatica. She lives in Olney, which is probably the furthest from the No. Va area.
I hope this provides a starting point for your search for a teacher. I tried to provide some perspective, as I remember, on the pro's and con's of each teacher.
If you would like, I could provide some info about violin, flute, and vocal teachers as well.
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mri_fan,mri_fan wrote:She is known as a tougher teacher, but very knowledgeable. One point of criticism is that she has an unabashedly Karnatica slant, and her Tygaraja Aradhana festivals only invite vmusicians from Karnatica. She lives in Olney, which is probably the furthest from the No. Va area.
Oh well, if that could be a criticism, I can criticize almost every concert organizer of inviting artists only from Tamil Nadu - But I wouldn't say that because I am interested in their music, and not where they come from.
Please refrain from making such comments - We all participate in this forum for the sake of music, but nobody likes to hear his/her home/family/state/country be talked with less respect than they deserve. I am sure you will agree to this.
I do not want to be drawn to a state A v/s state B controversy, but definitely wanted to make my point.
Regards,
-Ramakriya
Last edited by ramakriya on 28 Aug 2007, 00:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Bharati sang in tamizh: with the young women from the good land of kerala, we would sail our boats on the river sindhu singing songs in beautiful telugu.
Loving our languages is fine. Taking an interest in languages from other regions is even better. As CM enthusiasts, we realize that our music is enriched by the languages they are composed in. As rasikAs, we know it does not matter where each one of us comes from.
The region we are dealing with is the realm of CM. Do we need any other regional name tags other than that of rasikAs of CM?
Loving our languages is fine. Taking an interest in languages from other regions is even better. As CM enthusiasts, we realize that our music is enriched by the languages they are composed in. As rasikAs, we know it does not matter where each one of us comes from.
The region we are dealing with is the realm of CM. Do we need any other regional name tags other than that of rasikAs of CM?
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Well said Ramakriya. Mri_Fan has an uncanny ability of being very obtuse in his/her observations and comments. Time and time again this is reflected in various topics he has commented upon. I would request the moderators to closely scrutinise this forum members postings before it gets posted. We are all lovers of CM and can definitely avoid controversies. The request was for info on music teachers in the DC area and not their likes and dislikes. Once again Mri_Fan, please refrain from posting your opinions
Last edited by appu on 28 Aug 2007, 16:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Hello 'hsuvarna' - i am glad to see your post. I was wanting to write in similar lines but honestly lacked the courage to do so because I did not want to add fuel to the fire. I think when it comes to music teachers in North America, it is best to do as much due diligence as possible. I think 'mri_fan's information is good and I dont believe s/he did it with ulterior motive.
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I have been in this area for 5 years now. Mrs Maragatham does emphasize a lot on perfection.I have heard some of her students sing. I also believe that one has to reach some good standard to start performing on stage and give concerts.Believe me its take about 20 years to start giving concerts. Its needs a lot of dedication and interest from the student to start thinking about giving concerts. PPl in this country just want to see their children on stage which is ridiculous. I think if we start respecting the art form we will be able to set better standards and listen to good music.
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Hello: I am new to this forum, but not new to Carnatic Music in the DC area, or the fine teachers we have. mri_fan's points about the teachers are good, and it is great to see honesty here, as we need that kind of feedback for folks who want to find good teachers for their kids.
Myself and my neighbor both took lessons from Usha Char years ago, and we both had bad experiences with her. With me, she dropped me as a student because I didn't show up to a concert she was giving at the local temple due to previous committments I had (apparently she takes attendance.) With my neighbor and her kids, she wanted more of a committment from her i.e. volunteering at different events, cooking food, attending other functions, etc. and my neighbor could not make that kind of committment, so she dropped her as well. Both my neighbor and I have small children, and teachers need to understand that we do want our kids to take the lessons because of our love of music, but that we cannot devote every evening and every weekend to "the carnatic way of life". It simply will not happen in this country, with all of the other demands on our time, and the other activities our children are involved in.
Now, that being said, teachers have every right to pick and choose their students. But they should not take out their dislike of the parents on the students. Also, the students also have the right to decide what they can and cannot commit to outside of class, and teachers should not hold this against the students or the parents.
Also, I do have to emphasize that Usha Char is one of the best, if not the best teacher of vocal music in the area. She is amazing, but very strict. She definitely does have her preferences, and her way of doing things. If you can conform to this, then you will have no problems.
There are these unwritten rules, however, that if you sign your children up for these classes, that you are automatically committing to other things, such as pujas, volunteering, cooking, attending other functions, etc. People need to be aware of this before they decide to enroll their kids for these classes. Otherwise you too, will get dropped like a hot potato!!
I ask that others post their experiences as well, I am sure I will be starting some controversy with this post.
But hey, what are forums like this for, if not to express your opinions?
Myself and my neighbor both took lessons from Usha Char years ago, and we both had bad experiences with her. With me, she dropped me as a student because I didn't show up to a concert she was giving at the local temple due to previous committments I had (apparently she takes attendance.) With my neighbor and her kids, she wanted more of a committment from her i.e. volunteering at different events, cooking food, attending other functions, etc. and my neighbor could not make that kind of committment, so she dropped her as well. Both my neighbor and I have small children, and teachers need to understand that we do want our kids to take the lessons because of our love of music, but that we cannot devote every evening and every weekend to "the carnatic way of life". It simply will not happen in this country, with all of the other demands on our time, and the other activities our children are involved in.
Now, that being said, teachers have every right to pick and choose their students. But they should not take out their dislike of the parents on the students. Also, the students also have the right to decide what they can and cannot commit to outside of class, and teachers should not hold this against the students or the parents.
Also, I do have to emphasize that Usha Char is one of the best, if not the best teacher of vocal music in the area. She is amazing, but very strict. She definitely does have her preferences, and her way of doing things. If you can conform to this, then you will have no problems.
There are these unwritten rules, however, that if you sign your children up for these classes, that you are automatically committing to other things, such as pujas, volunteering, cooking, attending other functions, etc. People need to be aware of this before they decide to enroll their kids for these classes. Otherwise you too, will get dropped like a hot potato!!
I ask that others post their experiences as well, I am sure I will be starting some controversy with this post.
But hey, what are forums like this for, if not to express your opinions?
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Dear venkat,
If u wish to learn on online u contact this id sriswaram@gmail.com
She is from India.She has 35yrs. of experience.She had her training under great masters1)chittoor subramanian pillai2)S.V.Parthasarathy3)Prof.Ramanathan4)Embar Ragava Simhan .she teaches with veena.G.SHENBAGAM
If u wish to learn on online u contact this id sriswaram@gmail.com
She is from India.She has 35yrs. of experience.She had her training under great masters1)chittoor subramanian pillai2)S.V.Parthasarathy3)Prof.Ramanathan4)Embar Ragava Simhan .she teaches with veena.G.SHENBAGAM
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One more happiest thing that Hyderabad Brothers are also taking lessions with clear notation (eventhough they are busy artists giving concerts all over the world) online basis i.e., on skype & google talk. Their email ID is hyderabadbrothers@hotmail.com
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carn_rr, I completely disagree with your comments regarding why you were "dropped like a hot potato".
Many of my friends have either learned from Usha Char or had children learn from her, but I was unable to find an opening with her so my children learn from one of her students. Yes, she is very strict but extremely knowledgeable and encouraging. But that also means that she has many many people asking to learn music from her - more than she can handle. The level of time and dedication that she puts into music (which, I must note, is only her hobby, not her profession) is incredible and it's not unreasonable for her to expect students to at least show some dedication in return. Just like in school where children also go on field trips as educational opportunities, attending concerts is another form of music education and you learn just as much there as you do in a classroom. If you are only interested in putting the bare minimum into music - i.e. attend classes and that's enough - why should teachers have any reason to put additional effort on you? And if that's not your cup of tea, believe me, there are plenty of people lined up to fill your spot!! But I assure you that not "volunteering at different events, cooking food" was not the reason you were let go.
Fortunately, we are blessed in the D.C/MD/VA area to have so many music teachers and many visiting musicians also come and present workshops and other lessons.
Anyway, I just wanted to bring this forum back to it's original objective state.
Many of my friends have either learned from Usha Char or had children learn from her, but I was unable to find an opening with her so my children learn from one of her students. Yes, she is very strict but extremely knowledgeable and encouraging. But that also means that she has many many people asking to learn music from her - more than she can handle. The level of time and dedication that she puts into music (which, I must note, is only her hobby, not her profession) is incredible and it's not unreasonable for her to expect students to at least show some dedication in return. Just like in school where children also go on field trips as educational opportunities, attending concerts is another form of music education and you learn just as much there as you do in a classroom. If you are only interested in putting the bare minimum into music - i.e. attend classes and that's enough - why should teachers have any reason to put additional effort on you? And if that's not your cup of tea, believe me, there are plenty of people lined up to fill your spot!! But I assure you that not "volunteering at different events, cooking food" was not the reason you were let go.
Fortunately, we are blessed in the D.C/MD/VA area to have so many music teachers and many visiting musicians also come and present workshops and other lessons.
Anyway, I just wanted to bring this forum back to it's original objective state.
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