The Cleveland Tygaraja Festival 2026

[arasi]

The annual Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, the nearly half a century-old unique music festival in the US began today. A festival which marks its beginnings in the suburban basement of an indian family which brought friends and lovers of carnatic music together. So far away from the south of India, this phenomenon grew into a major event over the years.

The festival this year commenced today (always coinciding with Easter holidays when Cleveland University offers its halls for the celebration of saint Tyagaraja of TiruvaiyAru from across the seas).

Kudos to the organizers, next year, it will be the 50th Aradhana in Cleveland!

I do hope rasikas will bring in reviews and snippets about the festival with enthusiasm to share with others. It is a tradition on Rasikas too, to cover the concerts that the rasikas attend every year. Hope we can do it this year too! And, also see all the lovely pictures taken during the festivities!

I caught up with the listing only today, and thanks to icarnatic, on subscribing, I could get the streaming within hours. There will be free streaming of many events, of course, besides ticketed ones.

[arasi]

Though it was well into the concert, guess whose lively music I could savor straight away? Suryaprakash's! He was singing swarAs in Mohanam to VV Murari's violin, Murugabhupathy's mridangam and Minnesota's Balaji Chandran's ghatam.

SwarAvaLi by Suryaprakash, in the true MMI's mode, winding up in the patent cycle of swaras. Was it mOhana rAma that he sang? Now, the tani--a very good and an elaborate one at that .

I am back to the concert again, when Surya is singing gAnAmudapAnam, starting from the anupallavi. A quick and crisp delivery.

A tiruvAimozhi virutham, prefacing Purandaradasa's venkatAchala nilayam in Sindhu bhairavi.

Wonder what all he sang before Mohanam! If you heard the concert from the beginning, pleas fill in!

[shankarank]

Yet to catchup with Surya Prakash

Meanwhile :

Kala Rathna Dr Aishwarya Shankar (Vocal)
Srilakshmi Bhat (violin)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
Balaji Chandran of MN (ghatam)

pAhi Sri GirirAja sutE - Anandabhairavi - the sa-pa-sa kriti of SrI SyAmaSastri. svarams to pAhi Sri
Short bahudAri
brOva BArama – neraval at karuNAkara tyAgarAjanuta
varALI Alapana – mAmava mInAkshi
mAl Maruga Shanmuga
Bilahari Alapana, dorakunA iTuvanti sEva
vANi pondu cAluvaddanE – kAnaDa
Slokam in Desh
jOnpuri
hari citta satya

She began with an unhurried pace with pAhi Sri and Surya Nambisan held the pace to allow the singer to continue the same. She gave both ornamented as well as jAru laden sangatis. svarams to pAhi Sri were done with initial rounds reaching down to lower ni - which was nice.

A brisk brOva bArama followed by vArALi Alapana. Both her and Srilakshmi gave a good enunciation of the rAgam. And mAmava mInkashi - was rendered without a nerval.

Bilahari was taken for main and was well sung. The kriti was sung with much azhuttam and verve. A very traditional and crisp rendering - svarams followed by tani. Don't remember if there was a neraval. Will check VOD when it becomes available and update it. << Updated Apr 2:: there was not a neraval - but svarams to rAma brahma tanuyudau in initial slow rounds >>.

A Short tani by the Surya and Balaji Chandran followed. She concluded with a Slokam in Desh followed by a line in Jonpuri leading to a Dasara kriti.

P:S : << recollections on dorakuNA . First heard in 1989 or so concert in Music club IIT by Vid. Sowmya. When I mentioned it to my music teacher - Smt. Seetha Subramaniam, she recollected that she also learnt this kriti from Dr S. Ramanathan - may be the versions floating around could be attributed to his teaching many this one>>

[shankarank]

April 2
Sunil R. Gargyan (Vocal)
R. Raghul (violin)
Sai Raghavan (mridangam)
Nerkunam Dr S. Sankar (kanjira)

PantuvaraLi Alapana

Enna gAnu Rama Bhajana - PantuvarALi –
- Svarams at rAmA Bhajana
bEgaDa – Alapana

nAdOpAsana. - 2 Kalai Adi by SrI tyagarAja.

anjilE onRai peTRAn ( Kamba Ramayanam)
<missed one rAgam>
kamAs
madhuvanti

anumanai anudinam ninai maname - Guru Surajananda. – rAgamAlika
https://www.karnatik.com/c18752.shtml
tam tam udanatOm tana Dhim – Kamaj tillana

I might have missed some items. He started with a Alapana when I positioned the feed. The slider on the VOD is very short and hard to position accurately. The svarams to rAma Bhajana , which occures with 2 mAtra offset on rUpakam, he
shifted the eduppu gradually to vIccu + 1/4th and samam on vIccu. There was initial mismatch with Ragul replying to the standard sama eduppu.

bEgada Alapana virtuous one. He executes very well even with some voice limitations.
Ragul’s MC style reply with the same quiver was a refreshing addition to the concert. A Profuse reply with Azhuttam and flourish.

Neraval was started with measured pace and then graduated to one line exchanges in middle speed and fast phrasing. Svarams directly plunging to higher kalam.

Sai Raghavan launched nicely into tani. Persisted with the initial abhiprAyams even if it didn’t reach samam in first tries and got it. Dr Nerkunam Sankar brought his experience to do a nice koRvai to the arai iDam. And they concluded with korraippus for 63 mAtrAs ( I think but it might have been be samam to samam). I didn't hear any miSram there , some combination phrases. My Computer it seems has a lag with video for some reason.

viruttam was sung nicely launching to the Guru Surajananda rAgamAlika composition (https://www.karnatik.com/c18752.shtml).

Concluded with a brisk tillAna.