St Thyagaraja Aradhana in Bay area . SIFA

[thanjavooran]

26 01 2019 . Saturday 09 00 hrs
SIFA
Venue: Quinlan Community Center (near De Anza College)
10185 N. Stelling Rd., Cupertino, CA 95014

After formal introduction , rendering of Pancha Ratnam started at 09 20 hrs.
The podium was filled with nearly 75 boys and girls with their Gurus.
Percussion artistes were seated under the dais.
There was a perfect alignment of sruti and layam by the kids.
The lyrics were running on the screen behind.
The entire auditorium was full, of course with parents.
The boys and girls were in their traditional Indian dress viz pattu pavadai , Pudavai and Veshti etc. Girls out numbered boys.
It was a day long program and could not attend fully. Sound system was perfect. Any local Rasika who attended may kindly further elaborate. Admit with pleasure that it was a pleasant morning session that enjoyed.

Thanjavooran
26 01 2019

[thanjavooran]

Some important spring concerts missed as I was away on eastern side for two months.
But my grand daughter attended few, tit bits as narrated by her are given below.
1 Vijay Siva's concert was excellent as usual but for sounding of an alarm in the midst of Niraval. All rushed out totally emptying the Hall. An hella bella continued for 15 mts till it was found as false. Even after resuming the concert, a standard recorded announcement regarding the false alarm continued that made Siva restless. At the end Sabha organizer took apology mentioning, it was accidentally meddled by a child.
2 Ragaa sisters performed well. She could attend very late due to her academic commitments. But she noticed after ending, sisters banged the car door in anger while leaving the venue. Few were commenting, that sisters got upset because of improper arrangement of the mini counter setup by Ragaa sisters for marketing their CD albums and other products with very poor turn out. In fact sisters raised their voice at the organizers which was not in good taste.
Regarding the performance detailed review from Rasikas who attended the concerts is welcome
Thanjavooran
05 05 2019

[devan]

Do not write anything bad about the legends. Their fans will lynch you.

[iamsundar]

Do not write anything bad about the legends. Their fans will lynch you.

This forum always stood for healthy exchange of constructive criticism; so there's no place for empty threats.

For starters, RaGa ain't no legend (yet), imo. But that's secondary.

Re. CD sales - I've always been puzzled by the forced CD sales counters at these concerts. This places unnecessary burden on the concert organizers, who are primarily a motivated set of volunteers - who now have to (wo)man the booth, count the CDs, manage cash flows, maintain currency-change, and at the end, account for all of this with the artist.... What a nightmare!

For the artists to be pissed off that the CD sales weren't up to expectation, is downright rude. One wonders if such sales counters are even legal - many concert halls require explicit permission for such transactions. Also, how about sales tax? Not to mention federal taxes on such sales income to be reported by the artists. So, instead of throwing a tantrum, I'd suggest that these visiting performing artists find alternate means of generating their own CD sales.... Charging for a 'selfie' or an 'autograph' is equally weird; but when there are willing rasikas, no one can stop that... As long as they don't pain the organizing volunteers or flout local laws....