Swami Thiagaraja Aaraadhana

[Sam Swaminathan]

Swami Thiagaraja Aaraadhana will be held on 25th April, 2010 under the auspices of NZ Carnatic Music Society at

Mt Roskill Intermediate School Hall
Carr Road, Mt Roskill, Auckland

Programme is as follows:

Guru Pooja - 7.15am
Pancharatnams - 7.30 to 8.45am
Breakfast - 8.45am to 9.15am
Individual presentation - 9.15 to 12.15pm
Lunch - 12.30pm

All are requested to participate in this annual event and receive Swami's blessings.

[semmu86]

wishing all the best for the ArAdhanA .. who are all the artists participating ?

[VK RAMAN]

Wish the function a sounding success

[rshankar]

Sam - Best Wishes!

[Sam Swaminathan]

wishing all the best for the ArAdhanA .. who are all the artists participating ?

Thank you all for the best wishes. Around 10 teachers and a few elders will be singing pancharatnams accompanied by 4 violinists, 2 mridangam players and 2 vainikas. Various sishyas will join the chorus for those songs which they have been taught. I have been holding practice sessions for the last 4 weeks in my house for the main singers, purely for the purpose of co-ordination as each one's padantharam is different. All pancharatnams are coming out well, except Varali, which seems to give immense trouble and in particular, some how drags on towards the end. But hopefully we will get this right. Funny thing is, we have been doing this for the last 10-12 years, still we get into trouble with this magnificient piece!

Individual presentation will start with a few students singing Utsava Sampradaya Krithis, followed by youngsters presenting their songs on veena ( that is because we will set up the instruments while every one is having breakfast). Once this is over, vocal presentations can go thru at a faster pace. No artist is allowed to do raaga alaapana as this takes up the time. I have over 25 singers who should be accomodated with in 3 hours, which should allow for people to get on stage, get off stage, adjust sruthi...boy...it is a nightmare to get every thing done by the given time.

I have been doing this for well over 10 years, but each year it is a new experience and a new challenge. One day, one day, I might be lucky to get a senior artist from India in time so that he/she could guide us better. But that is in the future.

Meanwhile, with a prayer in my heart I approach this project hoping Swami will guide me thru this and bless us all for the continued service to Carnatic music in this beautiful country.

[Sam Swaminathan]

With blessings of Swami Thiagaraja, the aradhana went off very well. Once again, thanks to all of you for the best wishes. Here is a link to the photos of the events. would appreciate your comments

Thanks

Sam

http://picasaweb.google.com/10009927862 ... 9905591842

[VK RAMAN]

Great pictures. Pictures are worth thousand words. A brief caption will go a long way to recognize some of our rasikas who were part of thisw great event.

[Sam Swaminathan]

VKR...can u please tell me as to how I can add some captions to each of the pictures? Regards, Sam

[Sathej]

In Picasa, once one logs in to the album, there's an option that says 'Add Caption' just below the uploaded picture. That should work out I guess.

Great to see the nice pictures! Feels nice to be able to recollect some of the people - Dr Ashok Malur and so on. And good to see you on the violin as well

Nice to know the Aradhana went off well. Can be very challenging indeed to get together people for rehearsals, coordinate and arrange !

Sathej

[cacm]

Dear Sam,
Thanks for the pics. It looks more advanced than the beginnings of CLEVELAND ARADHANA. SAM, YOU may be the VVS for N.Z. Congragulations&Good luck. VKV

[VK RAMAN]

Other tech savvy rasikas may be in a better position to help Sam to put the caption on the pictures. Please help Sam.

[rajeshnat]

Other tech savvy rasikas may be in a better position to help Sam to put the caption on the pictures. Please help Sam.

sam
It is very easy, only you can add it as you will only know what to put as content .When you edit each of the photos just below the photo you will find a small link called "Add caption". When you click that link you can add your text there and save it.

[cienu]

Congratulations Sam and thanks for the pictures. I presume it is you in picture no 33 ..

[rshankar]

Sam - nice pictures! Glad it went of well...

[Sam Swaminathan]

Yes, Cienu, it is myself. Uncle was singing in "C" and for the previous player, I had played at 5 kattai violin. No time to change violin, so switched to the third string and adjusted the sruthi. By the way he was singing Mokshamu in Saramathi.

Thank you all for all the positive comments. VKV sir, I started NZCMS in 1996 and have been conducting this aaraadhana with the little knowledge I have for all these 14 years. Slowly and surely the organisation has grown. Whether it will go to the extent of Cleveland is yet to be seen. But, with all your blessings I will continue to do what I can, till some one younger takes over from me.

What I can offer you guys there, is that, NZ is perhaps the most beautiful God given country in the world. One should see this place in all its prestine glory in the summer months. If any of you are planning to come this side, please do let me know. It will be my pleasure to play hosts to you.

Regards

[Sam Swaminathan]

Here are some names behind he photos.....organised by photo numbers...

3 - Pandit who performed the Guru pooja and myself
4 - General arrangement of the programme and the participants
6 - Prominent singers - Mrs Radha Kumar, Mrs Padma Govardhan ( near the violin ) and Dr Ashok Malur on violin
7 - Raman Easwaran on mridangam - from Mumbai
10 - myself on violin in the left, on my right, Dr Somaskandan and Ashwin Narayan ( disciple of Ashok) and the lady in the blue sari is Mrs Priya Vijay
13 - Two veena players - Diwakar from B'lore and his disciple, Saketh
38 - Ashwin Narayanan
43 - Akshay Narayanan on flute - learning on skype from the sister of Sashank
44 - Sammy son of Ashok joins Ashwin
46 - Me accompanying Sri Rama, disciple of Smt Rajeswari of chennai
49 - Uncle Venkatachari - father of Mrs Priya VIjay
51 - My solo piece - Durmarga in Ranjani - lucky to have bought the violin I am using - my violin maker tells me that the instrument is atleast 90 years old !! Bought it for a song!!
58 - Dr Somaskandan - a practising doctor - Disciple of Sri MSG
61 - Dr Ashok Malur - Current president, practising doctor
62 - Mrs Padma Govardhan - a leading teacher here, currently doing doctorate in carnatic music from Madras University under the guidance of Shri BMK
64 - Sri Diwakar - leading veea teacher with scores of children

Hope I have not bored you to sleep!

Cheers

[VK RAMAN]

That helps. Thank you Sam for taking the trouble to write about each photo