Her next performance is on Oct 6 and Oct 14 in Chicago.
This is a brief bio on Suchithra:
When Suchithra Balasubramanian was 15, she asked her grandmother to teach her harikatha. But Kamala Murthy, the oldest living exponent of the ancient art of storytelling in Tamil Nadu, was reluctant. "She told me to concentrate on Carnatic music because there was not much of an audience for this form of storytelling that uses a lot of music, " says 22-year-old Suchithra.
Three years later, Suchithra went back to her grandmother, asking for lessons. This time, her grandmother happily agreed. What changed for this 17th century tradition of religious discourse to become a viable option? "In the last few years, more people have taken up harikatha and so she accepted me as her student, " she says.
Suchithra has since given about 500 harikatha performances, travelling all over Tamil Nadu and across India - New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore - telling ancient stories of Hindu deities and saints set to music and to the accompaniment of the chipla (castanets ).
