Vidu. Smt. Amrutha Venkatesh

Vid. Smt. Amrutha Venkatesh is a performing artist of South Indian Classical Music. Smt. Amrutha learned carnatic music from Sri M.T. Selvanarayana, Smt. Charumathi Ramachandran, Prince Rama Varma, and Prof. Parassala B. Ponnammal. She is an A grade artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan in both Vocal and Veena. She is the second female artist to sing at the Navarathri Mandapam in Trivandrum after her guru Prof. Parassala Ponnammal. Smt. Amrutha has won several prizes from the Madras Music Academy such as the Best Vocalist Prize in the Spirit of Youth Series (2006), CMANA Endowment Prize (2007), Outstanding Lady Vocalist in the Sub-Senior slot in 2013, 2014, and 2015 and many more. She has performed over 2000 concerts across the world in the USA, Canada, and India. Notable concerts include, her performance at the Navarathri Mandapam in Trivandrum, the Madras Music Academy, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, Ramanavami Festivals in Bangalore including Vyalikaval Rama Mandira , Seshadripuram Ramaseva Samiti , Vani Kala Kendra ,Rama Seva Mandali Dr R.K.Srikantan Trust, to name a few. She has also released several CDs including, December Season 2007, 2008,2009 , 2010 and 2013, Thematic CDs: Tulasi, Narasimha, Saveri, Ramayanam, and Devi Kshetram. Carnatica has released her first audio CD Samarpanam(live concert 2006). Many of her December season concerts have been released as online albums by Charsur She has recorded some Professor T .V.Gopalakrishnan’s songs for his album released in September 2022. She has also recorded a composition of Ghatam S.Karthick for his album Poornakumbham. Amrutha has taught about 50 students in India as well as overseas , some of whom are performers ,Graded artistes of All India Radio , Professors of Music , MA degree holders ,PhD Research Scholars ,Music Teachers and Central Government Scholarship holders .She trained and presented eight of her students at the Swathi Sangeethotsavam Thiruvananthapuram on January 6, 2018. She is also adept at composing Pallavis and Tuning compositions .Some of her teaching sessions so far are: A one day teaching session at Veenavadini School of Music , Perla , Kasargode in 2009, A two day teaching session at New Jersey in April May 2019, A two day teaching session at the Swathi Thirunal College of Music (Academy) in October 2019, A week long workshop for SPIC MACAY’s Anubhav teaching school students in October 2021, Four Masterclasses on Voice culture techniques in December 2020 - January 2021 and one in May 2022 for the Music global company VoxGuru, A Masterclass tilted Carnatic Foundation – from practice to Performance for VoxGuru in February 2023, and taught as guest lecturer for a two day session at the Madras Music Academy in 2022. Smt. Amrutha is also a composer. Till date she has composed, A Varnam in the Ragam Kedaram set to Adi talam, AkhilaLoka Nayaka, in praise of Sri Varadaraja Swamy at Kanchipuram, in Sanskrit. A Varnam in the Ragam Hamsanadam Ananda Natamadum Deivame – Hamsanadam – Adi , in Tamil and in praise of the Nataraja at Chidambaram. A Thillana in the Ragam Surya , in praise of the Sun God (Surya Bhagvan) , in Tamil. Keeping the pandemic in mind ,the Sahityam requests Surya to remove disease and spread light. A Nottuswaram in Kannada , ‘TotadalliHoovugalu ‘ which describes the beauty of a variety of colourful in a garden. She is adept at playing the Veena too and is an A graded artiste of All India Radio for Veena as well. She is a recipient of the First Rank in B.Sc (PCM)from The Bangalore University with 9 gold medals. She was a state level player of Tennis and has won school and college level medals in sports .Specifically in shot put ,discus throw and throwball. She can read and write Kannada,Tamil,Malayalam,Telugu , Hindi and French , apart from English and has a strong awareness of Sanskrit as well , through compositions.

Vid. Sri. Rajeev Mukundan

Rajeev Mukundan (M Rajeev – Violinist) Rajeev was initiated into this art form at the tender age of four. He’s currently under the tutelage of the legendary Kalaimamani A.Kanyakumari for almost a decade. Received scholarship from the Government of India from 2001 to 2009. One of the youngest ‘A’ graded Artiste of All India Radio (AIR). Rajeev is a receipient of several prestigious awards like ‘Spirit of Youth Award’ given by ‘The Music Academy, Madras’ in the year 2008, “The Best Violinist Award” from ‘The Music Academy, Madras,’ in December 2011, etc. Rajeev has given many violin duet concerts with his Guru A.Kanyakumari, and also has toured and accompanied leading artistes like Sangeetha Kalanidhi T.V.Sankaranarayanan , Dr. N.Ramani, Malladi Brothers, Vijay Siva, T.M.Krishna, Osccar nominee Bombay Jayasri, Dr Nithyashri Mahadevan & Ranjani Gayathri

Vid. Sri. Arjun Ganesh Sankara Narayanan Jayalakshmi

Arjun Ganesh Sankara Narayanan Jayalakshmi (aka Arjun Ganesh) - Percussionist. Born in Kumbakonam, a city well known for its rich musical tradition, Arjun Ganesh started learning mridangam at the age of five from notable mridangam Vidwan Poongulam Sri. R. Sabesa Iyer, who developed the Thiruvarur Bani (Method). Subsequently, he migrated to Chennai and became a full-time mrudangam artiste. He continued to learn the nuances of the instrument from Vidwan Poongulam Sri. S. Subramanian, son and senior disciple of Arjun’s first guru, Vidwan Sri. R. Sabesa Iyer. Today, Arjun is one of the most sought after artists of his generation. He has been fortunate to accompany some of the senior most artists in the field such as Sri. T.K. Govinda Rao, Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Sri. T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Sri. T.V. Sankaranarayanan, Sri. O.S. Thyagarajan, Sri. Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Smt. Aruna Sairam, Malladi Brothers (Sri Ravikumar and Sri Sreeramaprasad), Neyveli Sri Santhanagopalan, Smt. S. Sowmya and Smt. Visaka Hariji, among others. He has also performed in prestigious venues in India and around the world, and has completed concert tours in Malaysia and the USA. In addition to his career as a performing artiste, Arjun Ganesh imparts his mridangam knowledge on over forty students whom he has been training for the past seven years in Chennai. He holds an A-grade from All India Radio, Chennai, and has received the praise of rasikas and critics alike