LOTUS November 2016 Concerts

Shivani is a 6th grader in Bret Harte Middle School, San Jose. She has been learning vocal music from Smt. Jayanthi Umesh for the last 5 years. She has participated and won prizes in various competitions like Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana, Kala Aradhana, OSAAT, and Papanasam Sivan Festival.

She is also learning violin from Smt. Lakshmi Balasubramanya. Her other interests include swimming and art.

Aparna Thyagarajan (Violin)

Aparna Thyagarajan started showing interest in Carnatic music from a very young age. She had her initial training in Carnatic vocal music from her mother Smt. Rama Thyagarajan, and started learning the violin at the age of 10. She is currently under the guidance of her uncle Vidwan Sri Delhi P. Sunderrajan for both vocal and violin. Aparna has provided violin accompaniment for many Bay Area schools, competitions, and individual artists. She has won first prize in multiple categories for the violin competition held by the prestigious Cleveland Aradhana Festival. She has also given solo violin duets with her brother Vignesh Thyagarajan. Aparna has performed vocal music for various organizations throughout the Bay Area and has performed in Chennai as a part of the December Music Season. Aparna is currently a Junior at Cupertino High School in Cupertino, CA.

Santosh Ravindrabharathy (Mrudangam)

Santhosh Ravindrabharathy hails from the well-known 'Embar' family, known for its involvement in Music and Spirituality. Santhosh is currently a disciple of Vidwan Shri. Neyveli Narayanan, in addition to learning under his father Shri. Ravindra Bharathy Sridharan. On January 2nd, 2016, he had his Mrudangam arangetram accompanying Shri. Neyveli Santhanagopalan on vocal, Shri. Delhi Sunder Rajan on violin and Shri. S Karthick on Ghatam. Santhosh regularly accompanies various Bay Area music schools for their events, and for solo concerts by young musicians at organizations such as Carnatic Chamber Concerts, SR Fine Arts, LOTUS, Nandalala Mission, just to name a few.

He has participated in many local and national competitions including the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana and has been a consistent prize winner for several years in multiple categories. In June 2015, Santhosh was awarded the "IndianRaga Fellowship".

He is also learning vocal music under Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan, and Veena from Smt. Anuradha Sundar. His other passions include painting, writing short stories, and blogging. Santhosh is an 8th grader at Lawson Middle School, Cupertino.

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Sinthu Sivaraman (Vocal)

Sinthu is a 6th Grader at Harvest Park Middle School in Pleasanton, California. She is a disciple and under the tutelage of Vidhushi Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, one of the most sought after musicians in the Carnatic Music world today. Sinthu also takes workshop training from the eminent Guru Sri. Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan.

Omsri Bharat (Veena)

Omsri Bharat is a student of eminent Bay Area Vidwan, Sri Srikanth Chary. She has participated in many group and individual performances in venues like the Livermore Shiva Vishnu Temple, Lotus, Raja Rajeshwari, and other venues.

Abhishayan Shiva (Mrudangam)

Thamba has been learning mridangam from Sri. Gopi Lakshminarayanan. He has accompanied several solo & group performers for the past few years. He also had the opportunity to take advance training from mridangam vidwans from Chennai from time-to-time. He has won several awards in mridangam competitions, including Cleveland Thiyagaraja Aaradhana Festival.

Thamba is also learning vocal music for the past few years.

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Abinaya Srikant (vocal)

Abinaya is a currently a disciple of Smt. Charumathi Ramachandran, a disciple of the legendary Dr. M.L.Vasanthakumari. Prior to this, Abinaya learned music from Smt. Hema Sista, artistic director of the Sangithalaya School of Music and from Smt. Sangeetha Ayyar in Sydney, where her music training started at the age of 5. She performed her debut concert at the age of 10.

Abinaya has given performances in numerous venues in and around the Bay Area. She has also competed in several regional and national music competitions like the Papanasam Sivan competition, OSAAT and the prestigious Cleveland Aradhana and won prizes in krithi, alapana, swaram, niraval and pallavi renditions.

Abinaya learns Bharatanatyam from Smt. Mythili Kumar, Artistic Director of Abhinaya School of Dance and performed her dance arangetram in Aug 2016.

Abinaya is a sophomore at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, California.

Geetha Shankar (veena)

Geeta Shankar was initiated into Veena at five by Smt. Vijaya Balasubramaniam and she joined Nada Nidhi school at nine under the guidance of Sri. Srikanth Chary. She has participated in competitions locally and Cleveland Aradhana and won prizes. She accompanies youth musicians regularly at our Bayarea organizations like SR Fine Arts, Carnatic Chamber Concerts, Lotus and Trivalley Music Circle, OSAAT, SIFA to name a few.

Geeta is primarily a carnatic vocalist. She is a disciple of Sri. Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan.

She is a Junior at Stanford Online High School.

Akshay Venkatesan (mridangam)

Akshay Venkatesan, a sophomore in Evergreen Valley High School, is a student of Sarvalagu Percussion Art Center and has been learning Mridangam from `Laya Kala Ratna’ Sri Ramesh Srinivasan, a leading disciple of Mridangam Maestro Late Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Vellore G. Ramabhadran. Akshay is a Staff Member of SPAC and has been teaching actively in the school.

Akshay has been regularly providing Mridangam support in many programs and accompanying for concerts in Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana festival since 2011. Akshay has been accompanying Vocalists, Instrumentalists and Bharatanatyam programs in Bay area for the last five years.

In addition, Akshay has been accompanying in many Sabhas in the December music season in Chennai since 2013 for various vocalists and instrumentalists.

Akshay also learns vocal Carnatic music and is a student of Sri Paduka Academy. He plays Alto Saxophone in the Symphonic band in his school and plays tennis in his school Varsity Team.