Pallavi of the Capital DistrictProudly presents an evening of

Carnatic Classical Instrumental Music

Friday, March 25th, 2016, 6.00 PMAt

The HCC Auditorium, Albany Hindu Temple, 450 Albany Shaker Road, Loudonville, NY

Tickets: Pallavi Members and PYO Members – free. Non-members- $15, Students - $5

Make checks payable to “Pallavi” (Memo: “Shantala-2016”).

Mail it to Pallavi of Capital District, P.O.Box 1732, Latham , NY 12110

For tickets and further info contact the following members or visit us at www.pallaviny.org

Rajan Subramanian: 518-831-9430 Jayashree Ganesh: 732-725-9398 Kirthivasan Nagarajan: 518 783 0352

Sudharsana Srinivasan: 518-372-1248 www.pallaviny.org Srivatsa Kothapally: 518-698-3394

Sri.Melakaveri Balaji Smt. Shantala Subramanyam Sri. Vishal Sapuram Smt. Sukanya Ramgopal

SHANTALA SUBRAMANYAM born in Bangalore, was raised in Chennai, heartland of carnatic music. Like many Carnatic musicians, Shantala started playing in early childhood under the tutelage of her father M N Subramanyam, himself a musician and her brother Shashank, an eminent flute artist. It was also her good fortune to be trained by eminent performers -vocalist Late Sri. Vairamangalam Lakshminarayanan and is currently pursuing vocal music training under Sri O.S.Thyagarajan and Sri T V Gopalakrishanan. She gratefully acknowledges the contributions of famed South Indian drummers Trichur Sri.Narendran, Patri. Satish Kumar and Parupalli Phalguntowards enriching her rhythm training, spread over a decade. Owing to her diligent training, Shantala has been highly appreciated for her melodic presentations combined with complex rhythmic patterns. Today, she’s recognized as an important and authentic voice in this demanding tradition and this view has been echoed by music critiques.Shantala has has graced the stages of many reputed organizations in India and abroad and, in recent years is a frequent visitor to Europe, USA, Canada, England, Ireland and Malaysia for concerts, workshops and lec-dems.Shantala is also a well sought after teacher. She has been imparting training in South Indian vocal music, flute playing and reciting “konakkol “[vocal rhythm] to scores of students from India and across the globe.She has released 3 CD albums titled “Singing Bamboo”, “Bamboo in Harmony” and “Dakshin” in collaboration with popular and competitive artists from the South Indian music tradition. The albums have been highly appreciated by critiques and audiences alike.

VISHAL R SAPURAM, a proficient Carnatic (South Indian classical) Chitravina artiste and vocalist, is a disciple of the renowned Chitravina maestro Shri N Ravikiran. A child prodigy, Vishaal gave his first vocal concert at the age of nine, and soon afterwards, began performing on the rare fretless lute known as the chitravina. He has given concerts at many prestigious venues in Chennai (such as Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Music Academy, and many more), Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mysore, Udupi, and so on; as well as abroad in Malaysia, France, and the U.S.A. (at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana, and in Houston, Dallas, Austin, the Bay Area, and so on). Vishaal has been honoured with awards and titles including the Best Instrumentalist Award (Music Academy Madras, 2015), the Gottuvadyam Narayana Iyengar Award (Sri Krishna Gana Sabha), ‘Isai Chemmal’ (Trinity Fine Arts), and ‘Pannisai Ilam Paridi’ (Dr Kannappan-Vasuki Trust). He has been teaching music from the age of ten, and has also developed a system of computer notation now being used for publications. A graduate of the University of Texas (Austin, U.S.A.), he holds BA degrees in economics and Sanskrit and certificates in Tamil and business. He has also studied at the London School of Economics.

MELAKKAVERI K.BALAJI – Mridangam ArtistA disciple of his father renowned vidwan Sri. Melakkaveri Krishnamurthy, Balaji was initiated to the art of mridangam playing at a very young age. He has been providing mridangam accompaniment to many a accomplished artists for about three decades now.He is an ‘A’ grade artist and is featured often in the audio and video recordings of All India Radio and Doordarshan respectively. He has toured extensively for performances in India and abroad. ‘Yuva Kalaa Bharathi’, ‘Naadha Oli’ and ‘Laya gnyana illamani’ are some of the titles conferred on Sri. Balaji.Sri. Balaji is known for his deft fingering techniques and is a very versatile artist. He is one of the most sought after mridangam artists in South India, today. He is also a very dedicated guru and has trained many students to performing levels.

SUKKANYA RAMGOPAL – Ghatam artistBorn in Mayiladuthurai in Tamilnadu, Sukkanya hails from a family of musicians and Tamil scholars. She is the great granddaughter of the well known scholar Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. U.V.Swaminatha Iyer, fondly known as ‘Tamil Tatha’. Sukkanya exhibited an inclination towards percussion instruments right from her childhood. It was her great fortune to be in the neighbourhood of the great ghatam maestro VIKKU Vinayakram who eventually became her guru. Although, she started playing mridangam at the age of 12, Ghatam was her calling and she started training under Sri. Harihara Sharma, father of Sri. Vikku VInayakram.Sukkanya has provided ghatam accompaniment to many senior Carnatic musicians and has toured widely across the world and in India performing in several prestigious venues and festivals. “Ghata tarang” and “Stree tala tarang” are some musical creations of Sukkanya. She is an ‘A Top’ grade artist of All India Radio.

BOTH BALAJI AND SUKKANYA are proficient performers on the Konnakol (vocal percussion).

About the Artists