C.P. Sarathy Memorial Events To Begin Today

Hyderabad: Renowned mridangist Dr Yella Venkateshwara Rao will inaugurate Kalasagaram's Sri C.P. Sarathy Memorial Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Artistes Series of concerts on Monday. The event will be held over three days at 6 pm at Meenakshi Sundaram Hall, Shrinath Bhavan Hall.

The opening day will feature a lecture-demonstration titled 'Splendour of Muthuswamy Dikshitar' by Jagadisan Shivakumar. Based in Northern Virginia, Shivakumar is president of a consulting firm and a noted musician and musicologist. He is a disciple of Sangeetha Kalacharya Prof. S.R. Janakiraman.

Shivakumar is the founder and director of Gamakam, a music school in the Washington DC area that specialises in thematic presentations. He has presented concerts and lecture-demonstrations at several music festivals, composed tunes for numerous shlokas, and actively contributes to the community by teaching devotional kritis, Thyagaraja Pancharatna kritis, and Thiruppavai at a temple in Virginia. His innovative music quizzes have earned wide acclaim across the United States, including at the prestigious Aradhana festival in Cleveland.