{"id":4869,"date":"2014-02-09T08:18:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T14:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/WordPress\/?page_id=4869"},"modified":"2017-03-04T16:41:27","modified_gmt":"2017-03-04T22:41:27","slug":"homage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?page_id=4869","title":{"rendered":"CTU Remembers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam fondly remembers with great respect the contributions of legendary artists and dedicated community volunteers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?page_id=8310\">Artists<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?page_id=8314\">Volunteers<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--\n\n\n<h1>Nov 2015<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n<h1><strong>Sakti Vadivel- an old friend and a true CTU volunteer<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\nWith saddened heart I write this to share the news: Dr. Sakti Vadivel is no more. Sakti was a person close to my heart and to my family, and one of the greatest volunteers for CTU during 1970-90.\n\nDr. Sakti Vadivel was a bachelor and a close friend of Dr. S. T. Rao. We used to meet him in Rao's house. He was a frail, simple man, a radiologist by profession. There was nothing about his outward appearance for us to guess that he even got past high school. He would wash the kitchen utensils and will refuse to join us for lunch or dinner till the end and would happily eat the leftover, which embarrassed us no end. Even in our apartment days he would visit us with the Rao family, following them his own small car all alone, like an appendix. I remember his visits to our newly bought house here in Villa Park.\n\nOn the evening before the Utsavam, Sakti used to arrive rather late. The Raos, Swamys, West Bend Subramanyams and their kids would be asleep, cuddled in the living room. The Raos routinely brought home-made banana chips, Swamys brought home made Mysore Paks, Subramanyams brought geometrically perfect almond cakes or some snacks for next day's Utsavam. We would be chatting about music and what not, with excitement. Vegetables to be cut and vessels to be washed would all be waiting for Sakti's arrival. As soon as he came, he would carry all the items from the cars into the house. The he would be ready to wash all the big vessels needed to prepare the sambar, rasam and koottu for some 150 people attending the Utsavam next day.\n\nUsha would freely assign multiple tasks for Sakti to do, which he greatly enjoyed. Cut the pumpkin for sambar, load the cars by 5:30 am with the lamps, pictures, portable TV and more. He used to take leave of absence during the Utsavam weekend, just to give a helping hand. In the early years CTU had to move from one school auditorium to another, and everything was uncertain till the last minute. Sakti\u2019s endless chore was to clean up the messes our \u201cmusic lovers\u201d and their children created, also unendingly. One time, an attending \u201cmusic lover\u201d complained to Sakti that the hall was dirty, and he (Sakti) should do his job \u201cproperly\u201d. Since Sakti was not Chicago based, he was not known to the locals, some of whom mistook him for hired help.\n\nOnce in the late seventies, I asked Sakti about his family. He hesitatingly mentioned that his father was Justice Palani Sami Kounder and his uncle, Justice Kailasam. They were truly distinguished persons \u2013 actually, household names in Tamil Nadu. When his parents visited the US, upon our request, Sakti dropped them off at our house for some four or five days.\n\nWith passing years, as the Utsavam found more and more volunteers, Sakti began losing interest in many things in the society, and in life in general. He chose to work part time, shuttling between USA and India. Despite our many requests his visits to the Utsavam or to our house became rare, though he sent in donations off and on.\n\nUnannounced and unexpectedly, he would ring our bell and bring gifts for my children \u2013 almond cakes or baklava from a local shop. He would spend an hour or two with the children or start washing kitchen vessels. He would leave, saying he had to visit his classmate (Dr. Indraraj). We got used to this.\n\nSakti's timely and voluntary loan support at a critical moment for me, reminds me of the Thirukkural couplet on friendship.\n\n\u0b89\u0b9f\u0bc1\u0b95\u0bcd\u0b95\u0bc8 \u0b87\u0bb4\u0ba8\u0bcd\u0ba4\u0bb5\u0ba9\u0bcd \u0b95\u0bc8 \u0baa\u0bcb\u0bb2 \u0b86\u0b99\u0bcd\u0b95\u0bc7\n\u0b87\u0b9f\u0bc1\u0b95\u0bcd\u0b95\u0ba3\u0bcd \u0b95\u0bb3\u0bc8\u0bb5\u0ba4\u0bbe\u0bae\u0bcd \u0ba8\u0b9f\u0bcd\u0baa\u0bc1\n\nThe hand leaps in a reflex, to catch the slipping robe,\nTo save one\u2019s honor \u2013 that\u2019s friendship.\n\nA few years ago, Sakti was attacked by robbers in his parent's house in India. I read about it in the Tamil news paper \u0ba4\u0bbf\u0ba9\u0ba4\u0bcd\u0ba4\u0ba8\u0bcd\u0ba4\u0bbf (Dalily Thanthi) and rushed by train from Chennai to see him and his father \u2013 my first ever visit to Erode.\n\nTwo years ago he suddenly showed up at our home to stay overnight. Usha and I were overjoyed to see him. When people lose interest in life, either they become religious or get into temporary solutions. Unfortunately Sakti chose the second option. From what I gather from his folks, it appears that he was hospitalized for a brief period and passed away on Thursday November 19, 2015.\n\nFor all the service he has rendered to CTU, for all his personal help to my family at critical times, I can only mentally imagine for myself carrying his body on one side to the cremation ground.\n\nTES Raghavan\n\n\n<h1>Oct 2015\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=7115\">Dr. N. Ramani \u2013 Carnatic Music purist par excellence<\/a><a name=\"7115\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ramani.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-7118\" src=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ramani-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Ramani\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ramani-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Ramani-200x200.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\nCarnatic music is losing, one by one, great purists and instrumental soloists. \u00a0The sudden demise of Sangeeta Kalanidhi Dr. N. Ramani, the renowned flutist, is a major loss to Indian classical music and especially instrumental music.\n\nIn 1971, I was contacted by the East-West society of New York trying, for the first time, to arrange a concert tour of the renowned Violin Maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman with Flute Ramani and Ramnad Raghavan on the Mridangam. \u00a0Mr. V.K. Viswanathan, who was one of those early pioneers in this venture, wanted us to arrange private concerts as well as public concerts. Being that Flute Ramani was a classmate of Dr. S.T. Rao, the excitement was all the more for many of us in Chicago to look forward to their visit. \u00a0Getting a suitable hall for the concert was quite a thorny issue in those days and it required a lot of help from various people. Luckily through Dr. K.S. Rajan , we could fix the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago Auditorium essentially for free through the Indian Students Association of IIT. \u00a0Having picked up the artists in the afternoon from the airport, the Violin Maestro was very particular to do mike testing before taking his lunch. \u00a0To me, Lalgudi\u2019s mike testing in and of itself was a concert.\u00a0 The Mokashamu Galada, Na Jeevadara, and Nannu Palimpa were heavenly. I was doubly rewarded with celestial music from Lalgudi and the concert with Ramani. The Chicago concert was unquestionably the most memorable and I still treasure many of the reel-to-reel concert recordings of Ramani-Lalgudi across the USA from that tour.\n\nWhile Ramani was happy to perform in Chicago, he was all the more excited to meet his schoolmate S.T. Rao and the rest of us.\n\nIn fact, even more than their music,\u00a0 association with the musicians and the pride that they imparted by staying with us was more important to many of us. \u00a0We looked forward to the music related chats with Lalgudi and Ramani. A host of graduate students from Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan assembled in our \u00a0one bed room apartment and people wanted to talk to Ramani the whole night after the concert. \u00a0That night we talked to Ramani about many musicians and about Tyagaraja Swamy\u2019s specialties and what not.\u00a0 S.T. Rao entertained us the whole night with his great sense of humor while the ladies were busy constantly feeding us with snacks.\n\nThe next morning we had to go and pick up graduate students staying with friends across the greater Chicago area for the private concert at Dr. K.S. Rajan 's apartment at IIT campus. \u00a0The masterly beginnings of a Ragamalika Alpana in Begada, Arabhi, Anandabhairavi, Reetigoula etc. are yet to be matched for their depth and originality. \u00a0When Ramani suddenly joined the solo part of Lalgudi with his solo BagayaNayya, in a raga totally unknown to many of us (Chandrajyoti), it was simply scintillating.\n\nWhat a level of musical purity it was and just musical honey flowed through his flute!\n\nSome of the ladies wanted a complete repeat of Lalgudi-Ramani-Venkatraman trio\u2019s LP recording of Mohana Rama. \u00a0Ramani\u2019s Nagumomu, followed by his Punnagavarali (snake song) was suddenly interfered by a unique bow of Lalgudi.\u00a0 Their performance simply elevated us to a whole new musical plane. \u00a0The private concert ended with a Thiruppugazh Ragamalika and everyone quickly moved to my apartment just a block away for the lunch. They had to catch a flight within two hours. \u00a0In those days, it was quite normal for me to demand Usha to sacrifice listening to music for the sake of others. \u00a0Usha was quite busy taking care of many small kids and feeding them before we assembled for lunch. \u00a0Immensely pleased with the program, I called my friend Narayanan in London and requested him to invite Ramani when they toured UK right after their last concert in New York.\n\nI along with S.T. Rao and Swaminathan of Madison, Wisconsin drove all the way to Detroit to listen to their Detroit concert. \u00a0Each major city had a small group of music lovers. There was VK. Viswanathan, Sankaran and Nagarajan in New York; Sundaram, Balu and Chellappa in Cleveland; C.M. Venkatachalam in Detroit; Ananthanarayanan in San Diego; and Venkatraman in Toronto.\u00a0 Each was itching to listen to Carnatic music programs. Through Sony TC 560 (auto reverse, Scotch 203 tapes) etc, some of us were willing to make copies of these Ramani and Lalgudi concerts and did not mind a 300 or 400 miles trip to collect even a badly recorded concert of them or of some veteran musician\u2019s vintage concerts of the bygone days.\n\nThe very next year (1972), when I went to India to celebrate my sister\u2019s marriage to Narayanan, I went to meet both Lalgudi and Ramani. \u00a0In Lalgudi\u2019s house, they were busy doing some Thiruppugazh prayers and he was to quickly catch a train for a concert next day in Andhra Pradesh. \u00a0When I met with Ramani, he was excited to talk to me about his Chicago visits and also about meeting my friend Narayanan and talked about the lunch he had with Narayanan. \u00a0Ramani wanted me with Usha \u00a0to join him for lunch next week in his house. \u00a0He was staying on the open roof terrace of some house in Mylapore which was just covered with thatch and partitioned with korai sheets.\u00a0 Usha and I were deeply touched by his hospitality amidst clear poverty. \u00a0He openly said with feelings and with a great sense of gratitude that it was the Jugalbandi with Lalgudi that made all the difference to his musical life and provided a real economic uplift.\u00a0 He told us that he would be \u00a0moving to his own house\u00a0 being newly built \u00a0soon. \u00a0\u00a0At that time, I asked him to suggest some suitable music party for my sister\u2019s marriage reception. \u00a0I told him my financial limitations.\u00a0 When I casually mentioned that my friend Narayanan was marrying my sister Daya, he simply said that he himself will play for the reception on one condition.\u00a0 He would not accept even a token honorarium from us.\n\nHe is one of those rarest of musicians with a true love for music loving friends.\n\nLater, when I attended Thiruvayyaru Tyagaraja Utsavam, I was expecting the Pancharatna Kritis first.\u00a0 To my surprise, Ramani\u2019s solo Chetulara in Bhairavi simply filled the Utsavam with tranquility.\u00a0 This was the inspiration years later to implement an instrumental Chetulara group during Day 1 of the Utsavam prior to the Pancharatnam group performance.\u00a0\u00a0 To date, Ramani\u2019s Chetulara lives on through this tradition.\n\nAlthough Ramani has visited USA many times for many concert tours, and performed under different organizations, I very much wanted him to perform with Srimushnam Raja Rao for CTU. We had to wait a long time. In 2007, the concert of Ramani with Nagai Muralidharan and Srimushnam Raja Rao at CTU is a musical treasure for all of us.\n\nMore recently, I met Ramani and his wife for the last time at my niece\u2019s wedding in Chennai. To this day, no musician can match Ramani for the <em>souseelyam<\/em> and <em>soulabhyam<\/em>. This purist of purists is living in my house through his many music concerts with Lalgudi, with MSG, with KVN with Chowrasia and many others.\n\nWe\u00a0 have lost one of the greatest flutist, a musical purist and above all a great man with simplicity and modesty. \u00a0I will miss this great musician and his live music. .\n\nT.E.S. Raghavan<\/p>\n\n<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Apr 2015<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=6426\">Flute Maestro Sri T.S.Sankaran - A great musician<\/a><a name=\"6426\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>I came to know of Flute maestro Sri T.S. Sankaran when he first came to Chicago as a visiting artist under Natyakalalaya Dance school of Chicago. \u00a0Earlier in his career, he decided to move to New Delhi. Being a direct disciple of flute maestro T.R. Mahalingam, he was greatly\u00a0 respected for his scholarship and musical skills by the Carnatic music lovers\u00a0 of Delhi.\n\nDuring fall season, he was invited by Hema Rajagopalan for many music and dance programs conducted by Natyakalalaya\u00a0and over the years he became virtually a family member of Rajagopalans.\n\nIn 1981-82 he came to attend Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam and pay his homage to the saint by a unique Nagumomu in Abheri.\n\nI always looked for the first opportunity to know from him more about great musicians and Nadaswara vidwans of bygone days. \u00a0Being fully immersed in the Tanjore music traditions, he had lots to share with me on many anecdotes and historical details \u00a0about Thiruvayyaru Tyagaraja Utsavam and its evolution.\n\nHe used to pinpoint clearly subtle restrictions on the usage of certain notes in ragas and would argue vehemently to defend the vadi-samvadi traditions of Hindustani music that has been neglected by many Carnatic musicians.\u00a0 What appealed to me most was his utter simplicity and modesty.\u00a0 Luckily he has passed on some of the rarest \u00a0kritis of Saint Tyagaraja to his grandson and to some ace students in the New Delhi area.\n\nT.E.S. Raghavan\n\nChairman<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Mar 2015<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=6067\">Suguna Purushothaman - A true torch bearer of our musical heritage<\/a><a name=\"6067\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>In our society women carry the tradition and conservatism even more than men and music is no exception.\u00a0\u00a0 We are able to preserve some music traditions only thanks to great women musicians in our society .\n\nSuguna Purushothaman who recently passed away has left a permanent mark on our musical traditions and even more than many other musicians, she has been a true torch bearer of her \u00a0musical heritage as passed on to her by her great teachers,\u00a0 Musiri Subramanya Iyer and Chemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.\n\n\n\nEven at their highest levels, the older generation of female vocalists often kept \u00a0their creativity quite \u00a0subservient to the strict grammar passed on to them by their great teachers.\u00a0 Suguna Purushothaman was one such vocalist, preserving the musical heritage of her great teacher Musiri Subramanya Iyer.\u00a0 While externally keeping to the beats with full visibility to the audience is the normal practice of\u00a0 Carnatic musicians, synchronizing a kriti in two distinct beats , one with the left hand and another with the right hand showing the two distinct jathis and the common merge at specific spots of the musical phrases are great intellectual feats that were often attempted only \u00a0by the veteran musicians of the bygone days .\u00a0 Perhaps the expansive tala patterns of thavil solos during temple festivals of the bygone days encouraged many veteran vocalists from Tanjore district to experiment with complex laya patterns that are quite unique to Carnatic music. \u00a0\u00a0Musicians like Mudikondan Venkatrama Iyer\u00a0 would sing a kriti in Simha Nandana Talam ( his prime disciple Sangeetha Kalanidhi R. Vedavalli used to demonstrate them at lecture demonstrations in the past). \u00a0In more recent years I was stunned by a composition in Kalyani raga in praise of Kanchi Periyaval sung by Srivanchiyam Ramachandra Iyer in the complex Simha Nandana Talam at an Indian Fine Arts December season program.\n\nHowever, very few musicians have willingly and successfully transferred what they possessed as advanced \u00a0knowledge to the next generation of musicians.\u00a0 I can proudly say that Suguna Purushothaman is a true exception.\u00a0 She found that her prime disciple K. Gayathri is one who can absorb her knowledge and she willingly transferred her Tala skills using both hands with two different talas to K. Gayathri who actually demonstrated this in one of our\u00a0 CTU concerts.\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">I regret that we never had the right opportunity to have Suguna Purushothaman perform at\u00a0CTU. \u00a0There is no doubt that music lovers here would have gained so much from her classicism and knowledge.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Dr. T.E.S.Raghavan<\/span>\n\nChairman<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Dec 2014<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=5683\">Nedunuri Krishnamurthy - An Orthodox Musical Legend<\/a><a name=\"5683\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Carnatic music is continuously losing some of the greatest musicians each year and with a saddened heart, I come to know that Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy passed away in Vishakapatnam after a serious cancer attack.\n\nDr Sripada Pinakapani was one of the legendary musician-musicologist. Apparently like Sri Rangaramanuja Iyengar of Kriti Mani Malai, Dr Pinakapani was keen on listening to the music of Veenai Danammal and her rich repertoire of Padam music of bygone days. He was keen on nurturing an authentic and musically orthodox school around him and he was lucky to spot Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy as a superb classical and truly orthodox master student. When Nedunuri came to Madras music season to perform, the first one to notice his classicism was our legendary violinist Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman. He found that Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy is not just an orthodox musician, but in fact a very orthodox person in every sense and the two found in each other the right chemistry for an excellent concert team. Sri Nedunuri and Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman have some similarities in their styles. Their creative aspects are strictly within the grammar of the just past generation of legendary musicians like Ariyakkudi and so on. In addition to this, Nedunuri was one of the very first Andhra musicians who was willing to accept the greatness of Tamil composer Sri Papanasam Sivan which in all honesty was quite unusual for Andhra musicians. His expansive alapana in Shanmughapriya followed by Papanasam Sivan's immortal composition Saravana Bhava Enum was a major part of many of his concerts all over India with Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman. While Voleti Venkateswarulu from Andhra tried to integrate his creative talents in both Carnatic and Hindustani music, Sri Nedunuri found great value in team efforts and a willingness to accept Tamil compositions that he felt as deep and effective for audiences across India.\n\nSimultaneously he was trying to carve out new path for his creative urge. While Annamacharya's music was floating in Andhra area in sporadic forms with folk tunes, and devotees of Lord Venkateswara treated them with religious respect, he found that it was a fertile poetic format of a more authentic Telugu poetic form, that could be molded to higher level forms of Carnatic kritis.\n\nLike Ariyakkudi composed the musical format for Thiruppavai, he was keen on giving such an authentic Carnatic classical structure to Annamacharya's poetic outpourings in the unique tradition of Saint Tyagaraja. Having mastered the sangathi format of several compositions of Saint Tyagaraja , and knowing the inner meaning of Annamacharya's bhakti laden poems, he chose more than 100 among the large number of poems of Annamacharya and set them to Kriti format in many pracheena ragas like Mukhari, Bhowli , Shankharabharanam , Madhyamavati etc. in lilting music set to kriti format.\n\nWhile Ariyakkudi's Thiruppavai set to music as compositions were later popularized by Smt. M.L. Vasantha Kumari and many temples reverberate with that music all over Tamil Nadu during the month of Margazhi, the poems of Annamacharya set to music by Sri Nedunuri was later popularized by Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi and needless to say, it has become an eternal part of morning music all over many temples in Andhra Pradesh and notably at Thirupathi. At a popular level Sri Nedunuri's version is also sung by Sri Balakrishna Prasad as part of Annamacharya foundation in Thirupathi area. This fundamental contribution will stay eternal in Carnatic music and even in light music circles.\n\nNo Carnatic concert is complete without one or two pieces from the lilting Annamacharya compositions.\nOften ignorant music lovers get confused between the poet's contribution and the music set to the poem. We will not know in what tunes the original poet composed the poem.\n\nIn this connection I would like to make some personal remarks:\n\nIn 1976-78 time Sri Nedunuri Garu visited USA and I attended the concert at Oak Park, IL near my apartment.\n\nAfter the concert, I asked him, \u201cHow come you chose to sing many of the Annamacharya Kritis as sung in the LP record by MS Subbulakshmi\u201d?\n\nHe politely answered- \"Raghavan Garu- Don't you think, that the person who set those poems to music has the right to sing them?\"\n\nI was shocked and apologized profusely to this great musician for my query. In more recent times Dr. Sonty Sriram who runs the Annamacharya foundation brought Nedunuri Garu and honored him and released some CD\u2019s on Annamacharya. In the private party at Dr. Sonty's house when I talked to Nedunuri Garu, I came to know that the original poems were set to music by the poet himself in approximately 60 tunes and we still do not know the original tunes.\n\nI again queried him, \u201chow come you did not bring out the Kritis with music notations?\u201d He said,\" he has them in Telugu script. \u201cI only made one comment. It would spread much faster among music loving people across the four language speaking South Indian states if only the book is produced in either Devanagari or in Roman script.\n\nNedunuri Garu is not just a performing musician but also a superb teacher for talented musicians. Like Ariyakkudi's bani was carried on for another generation by Sri KV Narayanswamy, the bani of Nedunuri is currently being carried on for the next generation by his disciples Sri Malladi Brothers. CTU is proud to say that his contribution to music is spread through the many concerts we arranged here in Chicago of Malladi Brothers and one feels Sri Nedunuri and his music is very much alive when we listen to his prime disciples.\n\nDr. T.E. S. Raghavan\n\nChairman<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Sep 2014<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=5610\">Mandolin U. Srinivas \u2013 A true prodigy<\/a><a name=\"5610\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>It is a great shock to all Indian music lovers and to Carnatic music lovers in particular about the sudden demise of U. Srinivas the Mandolin prodigy.\n\nIt is possible for a musically motivated student to reach a higher music level by sheer perseverance, dedication and a teacher willing to part with his or her knowledge and committed parents who choose to evolve their life exclusively around their children. Many of our professional musicians can be certainly classified as achievers this way. Prodigies like Mandolin Srinivas or Flute Mahalingam are in a different category.\u00a0 They are like Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, or for that matter, Tamil Poet Subramania Bharati. They are God sent and often they seem to pass away leaving a permanent vacuum for years to come.\n\nI casually attended one of his earliest concerts at Sastri Hall perhaps in 1979 or 1982.\u00a0 Virtually every lady attending the program identified with him as one's own son electrifying the audience with Viriboni in unimaginable speed, followed by majestic Hamsadhwani and melting Hamsanadam in tremendous speed.\n\nI had tears in my eyes watching a young boy and listening to a true genius. May be he was seven or eight\u00a0 \u00a0years old then. The instrument was new to me and realized its unique advantage for a young boy with musical genius. He could move his tender fingers in all directions in split second and was able to create cascades of gamakas with little effort.\n\nAmidst very little demand for any solo instrumental music, his was an exception across the Madras music circles during all music seasons.\n\nFor the first time in Chicago Ameer Khusro Society rose like a meteor. It was actually one man's creation, one Mr. Habeeb Ahmad (sp?) who overnight brought some of the outstanding musicians from India and organized music festivals across USA for nearly 3 or 4 years. He treated it purely as a business venture and the city was suddenly witnessing a grand Hindustani & Carnatic music festival.\u00a0 Other great performers in this list included \u00a0great musicians like Pandit Jasraj, Rajan and Sajan Misra, Amjad Ali Khan,\u00a0 KV Narayanaswamy to name a few. \u00a0\u00a0Mandolin's performance was scheduled to start at 2:00 PM.\n\nWe were all excited to know that Mandolin Srinivas will be performing here in Chicago.\u00a0 I called all of my music loving friends from Madison and Milwaukee and other neighboring areas in the same proximity and families of ST Raos, West Bend Subramaniams, Swamys, and Sakti etc.\u00a0 Some graduate students stayed overnight with us to listen to the genius.\n\nI had a sudden call from Mr. Habeeb Ahmad. He needed my help to communicate to the audience that the concert could be delayed due to the delayed arrival of the artists. \u00a0Srinivas called me from O'Hare. \u00a0\u00a0He said that Mr. Habeeb Ahmad wanted to take them directly to the concert hall as he was committed to music lovers.\u00a0 They were traveling from Syracuse by a late night flight and had not even taken bath or done with morning ablutions. All that Srinivas wanted was to take a bath and do his prayers to Lord Hanuman before he will go to concert stage. \u00a0When we asked him about lunch arrangements apparently, they could have a quick snack at McDonald\u2019s on the way to the concert hall in Naperville!! I told Mr. Habeeb Ahmed that if he can drop the artists in my house, we will bring the artists and he could directly deal with the audience waiting for the concert. There was sizeable audience right at my house in Villa Park, anxiously waiting to have a glimpse of this prodigy and share a few words with him.\u00a0 He had a quick bath and went to our bedroom with his instrument and asked for a match box. He lighted agarbatti before a small photo of Lord Hanuman and played the first few lines of Viriboni in super speed and electrified all of us down stairs listening to this rehearsal cum prayer.\u00a0 He was ready to leave for the hall. All he wanted before the concert was just a can of Coke!! We saw the child in him with his minimal needs and utter simplicity.\u00a0 We saw the prodigy in action right from the Varnam piece and the hall was packed with music lovers. Madison Swaminathan said it will be his duty to somehow arrange his programs at Madison. For the next three or four years, Swaminthan would arrange Mandolin's program via the University of Wisconsin with help of some music lovers. Needless to say, we were always part of those activities in those early years. He was accompanied by Kanyakumari on violin and Srimushnam Raja Rao on Mridnagam. His Shanmukha Priya, Arabhi, Bahudari, Hameer Kalyani are all musical gems.\n\nAs with many talented young instrumentalists from India, he was more and more to be seen in USA performing many fusion concerts across USA with people like L. Subramaniam, Mc Laughlin, Zakhir Hussain and Gazal singers like Hariharan or Shankar Mahadevan. He was quite at ease to distinguish such programs with an authentic Carnatic music program. \u00a0When professional musicians are at ease with both popular and classical pieces, money finally dictates where they go and many authentic classical music organizations were unable to match their market price of fusion music for this talent. As recent as two years back we missed one such opportunity to organize his program under CTU. Luckily we joined with HTGC to run a program of his a few years back.\n\nIn a sense people like Mandolin Srinivas, Balamurali Krishna, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Ramani or MSG have played an indirect role in the growth of CTU. Many of the CTU volunteers in those days were so deeply attached to their music that they will travel 300 miles just to listen to their music concert in another Midwest city.\n\nIt is a pity that somehow the greatest prodigies are not properly recognized by Indian government or by the prestigious music societies. They all deserve much greater recognition from the Government of India. \u00a0Alas Mandolin is no more with us!\n\nDr. T.E.S.Raghavan\n\nChairman<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Feb 2014<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=4936\">R.K.Srikantan - One of the greatest doyens of Carnatic Music<\/a><a name=\"4936\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>It is with deep sadness and heartfelt regret that I announce the loss of one of the greatest doyens of Carnatic music.\nSangeeta Kalanidhi, Padmabhushan, Sri. R.K. Srikantan passed away on Monday Feb 17, 2014, only one day after celebrating his 94th birthday.\n\n\n\nMysore has been the home of many outstanding Vainika Vidwans like Veenai Seshanna and Veenai Subbhanna and many others. Indeed, Karnataka continues to nurture many brilliant young instrumentalists in violin and flute even today. There are also vocalists from Karnataka who are emerging as outstanding theoreticians and book authors on music and dance. However, based on the sheer melody and voice culture and authentic renditions, Sri R.K Srikantan has been the unique and unquestioned monarch among the vocalists of Karnataka.\n\nWhen I was young, I used to be truly tempted by only a few male vocalists for their melodious voices. In All India Radio, Maharajapuram Santhanam and Sri. R.K. Srikantan were the two artists whose 45 minutes programs I would never miss. I remember our co-tenant one Mr. Thirumalachari , who was working for Lactogen Company, bought a new radio. He also subscribed for the Vanoli (a magazine containing the monthly program for that month). I would always look through the Vanoli for the timings for these two persons. Needless to say, I certainly listened to people like GNB, Ariyakkudi, and Chembai who were given the night time slots. However, Srikantan\u2019s rich voice was certainly attractive to any music loving person or even a new comer who was only marginally interested in classical music.\n\nIn those days, the yard stick by which to evaluate vocalists as performers was whether they could match the vocal skills of GNB. While Maharjapuram Viswanatha Iyer\u2019s musical depth and Ariyakkudi\u2019s mastery and speed of rendering kritis stunned one and all, when it came to looking for a pleasing and capturing voice, GNB, Santhanam and Srikantan belonged to a different class altogether. Unfortunately for many years, Santhanam and Srikantan were not able to dominate the concert scenes unlike Ariyakkudi, Chemmangudi, Madurai Mani Iyer, and Chenmbai. In fact, the two were sought after on the concert stages in more recent years (i.e. the last 25 years).\n\nIt was with God\u2019s grace that R.K. Srikantan at 84 or 85 was touring the U.S. and we were fortunate to organize his concert for the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam. That year, many young talents and local music teachers learned some rare kritis from him under a matching grant program that CTU initiated. Being truly devoted to the music of Saint Tyagaraja, during the concert he refused to sing any Kritis other than Tyagaraja Kritis. If my memory serves me, he sang perhaps one Purandara Dasa Devarnama to appease some Kannada speaking music lovers in the audience. He strongly believed that his music concert was not to be a formal concert but rather a true homage to that immortal composer.\n\nHe has trained many vocalists from Karnataka like M.S. Sheela, Satyavati, and his own son Rama Kanth and so on. I am sure the vacuum is not easily filled in Carnatic music, no matter how many new talents emerge.\n\nT.E. S. Raghavan<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Feb 2014<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Dr. S. N. Devanathan<\/h1>\n\n\nOn behalf of CTU we convey our heartfelt grievances to the family of Dr. S.N. Devanathan who passed away \u00a0on saturday, February 8, 2014. Dr. Devanathan, besides supporting the Utsavam with generous contributions continuously, was deeply interested in hosting \u00a0rehearsals for Pancharatnam with grand feast for the participants all specially prepared for the occasion . He \u00a0also loved to host visiting artists of CTU cutting across castes and creeds and they have hosted many such CTU artists in the past, . He used to \u00a0make special efforts to organize special programs for visiting CTU artists giving additional support, often a crucial element in CTU's sucess.\n\n\n<h1>Oct 2013<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=4872\">T.R. Subramanyam - A musician's Musician<\/a><a name=\"4872\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>My first exposure to the music of T.R.Subramanyam (affectionately called TRS by music lovers) was a private concert in New Delhi in 1975. While I initially felt that his swara prastaras were closer to subtle mathematical permutations, I quickly realized that his students were in the audience and as a teacher he was using it also as a platform, a serious classroom trying to communicate the key notes and like vadi-samvadi notes. Besides his students,the audience included lay listeners who were attentively picking up the salient glides of the raga through the emphasized notes. His scholarly concert ended with a beautiful Tillana in raga Brindavani. The portion of the Tillana \" Kanna nin kazhal charanam , Kaarmugil vanna\" is still ringing in my ears. The concert was held in the house of a music lover perhaps one Mr. Glaxo Subramaniam of Greater Kailash, if my memory is correct. The concert lasted virtually for four hours. I felt that he should have been greatly inspired by the music of GNB. Later I came to know that he was a direct disciple of Musiri and was a professor at Delhi University.\n\nHis first performance in Chicago for the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam was held in 1988. Unlike many other musicians who loved to sing for audience and build up language networking through kritis and titbits and popular ragamalikas in all languages, he, like veteran musician Sri R.K.Srikantan, had a deep sense of respect for the purpose and goal of the utsavam and was very keen on strictly adhering to Tyagaraja Kritis at the Utsavam. He tried to bring out the genius composer's own creation, raga Karaharapriya, a true gift to Carnatic music. He was virtually in great emotions when he rendered the kriti Chakkani raja . Later he mentioned that Pakkala Nilapa\u1e0di, Mitri Bh\u0101gyame, R\u0101m\u0101 n\u012b sam\u0101na, Na\u1e0daci Na\u1e0daci and Rama n\u012byata are all gems of Saint Tyagaraja with different colors and luster. It is a strange feeling that while so many compositions were composed by the saint, in this raga, we don't find even one composition from Deekshitar or Shyama Sastri on the same raga who were indeed his contemporaries. My last meeting of TRS was at a condolence meeting for violinist M.S. Gopalakrishnan.\n\nWhile many on the dais were taking advantage of the condolence meeting, people like TRS, Prince Rama Verma, and violinist Ganesh, to name a few were in a pensive mood , perhaps thinking about the great loss to Carnatic music.\n\nHis serious attempt to bring out the historical perspectives of the strength and weaknesses of both great composers and their sishya paramparas were achieved through a remarkable, though controversial thesis by one Dr. Radha Venkatachalam under his able guidance. Through her, he was able to indirectly spell out his observations on great composers, and great performers of bygone days. The other person who ventured boldly was Sri Rangaramanuja Iyengar, though his magnum opus works in Tamil (Krutimanimaalai in four volumes) and in his books, The History of South Indian Music and in the book, The Musings of a Musician.\n\nOver the years I have met a few Delhi based students of TRS who have so much respect for him as a teacher. Apparently, knowing fully the musical limitations of students will not give up his efforts to impart higher musical skills and ghamaka subtleties that are special to certain kritis. Many music lovers and his students will feel the loss of such a great musician, teacher, and a critical scholar.\n\nT.E.S.Raghavan\nPresident<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1><span style=\"font-size: 1.17em; line-height: 1.5em;\">Jul 2013<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=4606\">Sri Nookala Satyanarayana - a renowned musician<\/a><a name=\"4606\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>I came to know through Mr. Kolachina ( CTU C-Sruti Pancharatnam group) that the renowned musician from the state of Andhra Pradesh, Mahamahopadhyaya, Padmabhooshan Sri Nookala Satyanarayana passed away.\n\nHe was one of the earliest persons to train students into Carnatic music in United States. Sri Nookala Satyanarayana Garu spent longer periods in Pittsburgh training students into the basics of our system and also training the musically gifted students into developing raga alapana and swaraprastaram. The S.V. temple at Pittsburgh released many cassettes of his Carnatic music lessons at different levels. His recording of Nauka Charitram, the unique opera of Saint Tyagaraja with the renowned Andhra musician Srirangam Gopalaratnam is one of those rare cassettes where he sings many of the padhyams and choornikas that are integral part of this opera. He was a direct disciple of the renowned veteran musician of Andhra, and also a professor of Medicine, Dr. Sripada Pinakapani.\n\nI came to know from Mr. Kolachina that Satyanarayana Garu was also a disciple of Sri Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu Garu. His family and many students across the US and India will truly miss a great teacher, scholar, performing musician, and musicologist.\n\nT.E.S. Raghavan\n\nPresident<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Apr 2013<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=4455\">Violin Maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman - Loss Irreplaceable<\/a><a name=\"4455\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Our Indian classical music has lost just in a short span of five months , two of its greatest violinists, soloists, and masters of two distinct musical heritage. For over six decades they dominated our musical platforms initially as accompanying artists with a galaxy of veteran musicians, creative musicians and later as soloists and instrumental duelists. We lost our affectionate M.S.Gopalakrishnan and now our affectionate Lalgudi Jayaraman.\n\nThe recent news that Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman passed away, simply leaves a big vacuum in Carnatic music that can never be replaced. One of the strong musical threads that gave the continuity from the mid twentieth to the early twenty first century is permanently separated from all music lovers and we have to live with that, mourning with reverence:\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Thryambakam yajaamahe sugandhim pushti vardhanam<\/em>\n<em>Urvarukamiva bandhanath mrityor muksheeyamaamrutaat<\/em><\/p>\n\n\nAt a very young age Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman rose like a meteor amidst other seasoned accompanying artists virtually challenging the greatest of the veteran musicians like Alathur Brothers, GNB, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and in later years with creative musicians like Madurai Somu and many others.\n\nThe music connoisseurs would be stunned by total reproduction of all the salient musical phrases of the vocalists followed by a substantial addition to what the musician missed as creative ghamakas in the alapana and unique sangathis that are specific to the kriti performed and the raga elaborated.\n\nHis mastery on ragas like Arabhi, Saramati, Mohanam, Bilahari, Khamas, Madhyamavati, Kharaharapriya, Todi, Shanmukhapriya and others are permanenly available for posterity through his LP records and some vintage concert tapes. His creative Tillanas in ragas like Mohana Kalyani, Kanada, Behag and Desh are meticulously sung by almost all concert musicians and are also extensively used in dance performances.\n\nHis duets with flautist maestro N.Ramani, his trio with Ramani and Veena (Trivandum) Venkatraman and his other duets and trio with his sister Srimathi and his son, G.J.R. Krishnan and daughter, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi are too well known to all music lovers.\n\nHe did inherit an encyclopedic musical treasure of the Tyagaraja parampara through his father Lalgudi Gopala Iyer, from the lineage of Lalgudi Rama Iyer, a direct disciple of Saint Tyagaraja.\n\nMany organizations like CTU owe their inspiration to the first visit of Lalgudi with Ramani on an extensive US tour in 1971. CTU owes a special sense of gratitude to this great musician for his personal letter of blessing to our Annual Utsavam when when we celebrated its silver Jubilee year in 2001.\n\nIn grief,\n\nT.E.S. Raghavan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Jan 2013<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=4123\">M.S. Gopalakrishnan - a Violinist's Violinist<\/a><a name=\"4123\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Sri M.S. Gopalakrishnan, the violin maestero, genius and the Nada Upasaka was hospitalized for a few days and passed away around 2 AM IST on 3rd Jan 2013. Even in the last few minutes, he was very conscious and all the time he was using his right hand as though he was using the violin bow and was using the left hand as though he was keeping the gamakams. Who can replace our beloved MSG? I will try to meet his family suvived by wife, daughter Narmada and another daughter and son. I will send the details once I get the particulars.\n\nPlaying and listening to his renditions of Sri Saraswathy in Arabhi or Mokshamugalada in Saramati is the least we can do to pay homage to that great soul, Nada Upasaka and the true instrumentalist's instrumentalist and violinist's violonist.\n\nIn grief,\n\nT.E.S. Raghavan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Feb 2011<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=2821\">Obituary: CTU loses its founding father, Tyagaraja Rao<\/a><a name=\"2821\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>From T.E.S. Raghavan:\n\nDr. S.T. Rao, the founding father and backbone behind the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam passed away on 1 Feb, 2011 at 2:30am at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Let us join together to share our grief and condolences with his family (Mrs Lalitha Rao, Venkatesh(son), Revathi (daughter-in-law), Asha (daughter), Hariprasad(son-in-law) and grand children.\n\nI would like to share with you all some of my personal reminiscences and his key role in being very instrumental to steering CTU\u2019s\u00a0 course of action virtually from 1977 till 1990.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_2826\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Dr. S.T. Rao and Mrs. Lalitha Rao with flautist Dr. N. Ramani at CTU 2007\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Dr.-Rao.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2826\" title=\"Dr. Rao\" src=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Dr.-Rao-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Dr.-Rao-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Dr.-Rao.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>[\/caption]\n\nMy association with Dr. S.T. Rao dates back to 1969.\u00a0 It was a long trip from Cleveland to Chicago.\u00a0 In his car besides Tyagaraja Rao and Lalitha Rao, we were two (TES and Usha) and we also had, Swamy (Madison) &\u00a0 Venkatesh Athreya. The entire trip was spent listening to Madurai Somu\u2019s full concert with Lalgudi in a cassette player blasting in full volume. He dropped us at\u00a0 our apartment in 5500 South Shore Drive, Flamingo.\u00a0 He\u00a0 was making a move from Case Western Reserve University to Madison, Wisconsin as a new faculty member in the dept of Biochemistry. All I knew in that 6 hour trip was that he is from Tanjavoor, his pet choice was\u00a0 the music of Mali, His classmate from school was flutist\u00a0 Ramani, he\u00a0 was a friend of my classmate T. Parthasarathy at Cleveland. In two weeks he visited\u00a0 us in Chicago to exchange musical interests. I had no musical possessions other than the 45 rpm records of Balamurali (Nagumomu, Devadideva, Neerajadala Lochani), , Ne Podagonte(MSG), Mokshamugalada (Lagudi), Yamihe (Natabhairavi), Hindola tillana ( Balamurali with Lagudi on violin-78 rpm), Salamad- Nazakat- Bhoop and Malkauns (33rpm), Pithukkuli ( Nadalola thimikita, 33rpm), Chittibabu (Kuil song + ??33rpm) ,\u00a0 I never possessed any\u00a0 record player and\u00a0 I had just moved to USA from England with these records. I was too possessive to part with them and he said, we should visit him where he has a record player, and a tape recorder to play tapes etc. He was renting a 2 bedroom apartment .\n\nWithin two months my friend T. Parthasarathy with Ranjani\u00a0 visited us with his friends Nair, Radha Nair, Shankar, Santhanam and we all decided to visit S.T. Rao in Madison in Pacha\u2019s\u00a0 car. Only Pacha and Nair knew any driving and we took 7 full hours to reach Madison.\u00a0 We made several iterations before we could get out of Chicago. Rao\u2019s were\u00a0 waiting patiently for us to arrive and we had a feast, that I cannot forget in my life. Only men folks could go as there was no space in the car for all.\n\nIn 1971 he moved to Purdue University as part of a sabbatical deal and my visit to Rao\u2019s apartment increased more, roughly once every three weeks. Panju, Vittal Rao, Kannan , Radhakrishnan (the person who knew MDR and who took me to MDR\u2019s house )\u00a0 were all ardent music fans and so many were part of our musical association. In 1971 Ramani, and Lalgudi were visiting USA\u00a0 on a concert tour for the first time and Dr K. S Rajan helped us to organize their program as part of IIT (Indian) cultural program. Ramani stayed with us in our apartment ( South Commons 2921) and needless to say the music related conversation lasted from 8pm\u00a0 till 4am and we were all itching to talk to the great musician and his normal life and Ramani being Rao\u2019s schoolmate from\u00a0 Tiruvaroor school, we were simply excited to hear him play casually\u00a0 ragas like Chandrajyoti, Punnagavarali, and what not. Lalgudi\u2019s Arabhi start in the private concert simply thrilled us and so was Ramani\u2019s nagumomu and their Desh and so on.. Rao was keen on attending their concert in Ann Arbor and I was excited and with perhaps Panju we went to\u00a0 Ann Arbor, MI and stayed with\u00a0 CM Venkatachalam a close friend of Rao.\u00a0 I had heated arguments with Venkatachalam and Rao was trying to pacify both sides. For me Balamurali was the musical ultimate while Venkatachalam, formally musically trained and drawn to totally conservative music\u00a0 was all in all for Semmangudi. Having been exposed to Hindustani musicians and their music, I could not find any one closer to them in voice and emotions among Carnatic musicians other than Balamurali.\n\nThe period 1972-77 was full of social activities and we used to spend virtually every alternate week in Madison and they will visit us in Forest Park and Oak Park apartments invariably in the last week of each month. .\n\nAfter I returned from my Sabbatical in 1976, Rao was very keen on initiating\u00a0 formal musical programs and he said why not we celebrate Tyagaraja Utsavam. While I loved concerts, I had very little exposure\u00a0 the notions of a kriti, sangati, and peculiarities of the ghamakas in\u00a0 our music.\u00a0 However from my school days I had exposure through listening to great musicians and doyens like Ariyakkudi ( at leat 5 concerts), GNB with Lagudi ( Parthasarathy temple, Triplicane Cultural academy etc 6 or 7 concerts for sure), Alathoor Bros ( 3 concerts), Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer ( 4 concerts) MLV ( two concerts), Vedaranyam Vedamurthy, Karukurichy and so on. I heard Chemmangudi (1964) for the first time in Calcutta, Somu in Calcutta (1963), Mali ( 4 concerts, one in GT Madras amman Kovil- Bommulu Iyer Street, Elephant gate) and a few more like Radha Jayalakshmi,\u00a0 Pappa, Chowdiah, and at least 10 concerts of Madurai Mani Iyer ( all Big street Pilliar Kovil or Kapali kovil\u00a0 concerts).\n\nRao called me one day in 1977, during close to bahula panchami time and said his house is there for me to plan and Lalitha is there\u00a0 to feed all guests for a lunch and dinner.\n\nI decided to take his gesture and simply used the stencil pink copies to make 50 copies and mail it to music loving friends in Chicago area. People like SA Balakrishnan, Savitri Subramaniam, Usha Bala, Sharada Venkatraman, Dr Rangaraj (Sridevi), T Partahasarathy, my student Bapat, KS Rajans, Seshadris (Saroja), Krishnamachari, AVL , may be Dr Vidhyasagars and a few more I am unable to remember all went to Madison to be part of the first ever Utsavam. He played the pancharatna kritis on tape, and we all chimed the last phrase each time. No one knew fully even one pancharatnam and we had succulent lunch and dinner. There was one Narasinga Rao from Andhra who had a superb voice like Jesudoss and he was the ace performer for 20 minutes. I organized USK based on Balamurali\u2019s AIR recording ( Ranjani, Kalyani, Saroja Seshadri, Usha) were the singers with me and\u00a0 Bapat gave Harmonium support. This was\u00a0 a surprise program . Rao was very very happy to have done this and we dissected every one\u2019s performance and the next day we were leaving half heartedly to\u00a0 Chicago.\n\nIt was on his personal advice that I decided to move the Utsavam permanently to Chicago as the main audience was only from\u00a0 greater Chicago. But WestBend\u00a0 Subramaniam, Swamy, Sakti, Sridharan and students from Madison were all part of the Utsavam and from 1982 on and it settled to Memorial Day weekend with the name Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam.\n\nWhile Hema Rajagopal with her very first set of 4 or 5 students organized Sadinchane in 1979 (CTU at Vivekananda Vedanta society basement), from 1982 dance became a major aspect of the Utsavam .\u00a0 Rao liked the idea of keeping dance and adding new themes each year.\n\nThe Friday night of the Utsavam weekend was the most exciting thing to all of us. His family will arrive by 8PM and so will\u00a0\u00a0 Swamy, Neela, Sakti\u00a0 Prabha and Subramaniam.\u00a0 We really felt we were part of a big family.\u00a0 We were simply one family separated by a mere distance of 137 miles. Crossing 12\/18 Madison and the Whitney way exit with its TV towers was virtually like heaven and it brought so much happiness to us and in particular to Deepa and Tara as kids going to Madison. People like BN Sridharan, Lakshmi Sridharan, Krishna Athreya and many other people from Milwaukee etc used to become part of CTU.\n\nIn 1984 it was Rao who decided to bring out CTU brochure and he managed to convince Dr BN Sridharan to print them as gratis by Sridharan of Xerox Corporation. Thanks to Rao\u2019s great initiation,\u00a0 and thanks to BN Sridharan\u2019s help we used to virtually continue this till 1996 or 1997. This meant we will visit Madison and even spend the night at Sridharan\u2019s house or Swamy\u2019s house or Rao\u2019s house ( By we I mean: TES, with MG, or TES with Sadagopan or TES with MG and Sadagopan).\n\nIt was Rao who wanted us to formally register CTU as a not for profit organization and needless to say Lalitha, and Rao were the first two to sign. I was not ( and still I am not) a citizen, I could not sign the application and Chellam, SA Balakrishnan, KG, and Sharada Venkatraman were all part of those activities.\n\nIt was Rao who said we should encourage local teachers by elevating them as CTU\u00a0 teachers no matter what they teach and what their musical levels are .\u00a0 We should leave that judgment to parents\u00a0 who choose to seek them as teachers for their children\u2019s musical\u00a0 training . This notion of CTU teachers picked up great momentum and we now see what it is. One of the ace singers in those days was Dr Vijaya Sastri, who stunned us by performing all the pancharatna kritis in 1978 ( West Bend, Wisconsin CTU)\u00a0 and over the years we realize how much it has grown .\n\nThe phone conversations about the Utsavam and organization, the fixing of menu for the year, the order in which music will go,\u00a0 how much to charge as donation, in all such things Rao played a major role and I simply respected his personal judgment We used to have long hours of discussions and phone conversations that are now crystallized\u00a0 to CTU meetings.\n\nIt was Rao who started the idea of serving\u00a0 Banana\u00a0 chips (nendrangai varuval) for the Utsavam. He will buy a carton of Nendrangais\u00a0 and spend two to 3 days with Laalitha Rao making them at home and let us sample right after their Friday arrival. It was Swamy who will make the tastiest Mysore Pak each year for the Utsavam. It was Sridharan who will get the brochure printed free of cost. It was Sakti who will cut the pumpkin (night 1am) for the Sambar or More kuzhambu to be made for all. Sakti and Valathoor shared the cleaning responsibilities at the hall and everywhere. CN Krishnaswamy, Chari with grad students from Wisconsin shared front desk collections. Prabha Subramaniam will make a new and surprise sweet each year. Male guests at my house went to KG s house if necessary for morning ablutions. For all practical purposes, Rao coordinated efforts from Wisconsin side. I tried to coordinate from Chicago side. For all practical purpose we could call it Chicago_Madison Tyagaraja Utsavam.\n\nWhile his health deteriorated after moving to Columbus Ohio, even there he quickly initiated the so called\u00a0 Columbus, Music society and gave a real boost to run it efficiently by hosting all\u00a0 visiting musicians to pass through Columbus. Even with serious health\u00a0 conditions he made it a point to drive\u00a0 from Columbus to Chicago to attend CTU. Recently when his health further deteriorated, he moved to Chapel Hill, to spend his last days with his son Tesh,\u00a0 He had to make complex dialysis arrangements to spend a week with daughter Asha.\n\nRecently when we went to Durham, I spent one\u00a0 whole day with Rao and Lalitha and Tesh and his usual sense of humor was quite fertile. We were talking about the bygone days.\n\nI wanted some music of S. Kalyana Raman that Rajalakshmi Mami wanted and he made it a point to copy some\u00a0 concerts of him.\u00a0 He considered Kalyanaraman as a musician\u2019s musician. In his worst health conditions he\u00a0 wanted to make sure my request is immediately attended.\n\nAcademically Rao was a brilliant student of the famous physicist Prof. G.N. Ramachandran, his BSC Hons (Physics) record in Madras University will speak for itself. Of course Prof.\u00a0 S. Chandrasekhar\u2019s total score was just higher. Rao was admired as a brilliant\u00a0 crystallographer by many researchers\u00a0 all over the world and many people around the Physics community from GNR\u2019s group will miss him.\n\nCTU has lost its founding father.\n\nI\u00a0 have lost a close friend, virtually a brother.\n\nMy children have lost a loving Rao uncle.\n\nIn grief\n\nTES Raghavan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Feb 2010<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=2062\">Obituary: CTU loses a founding member<\/a><a name=\"2062\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam mourns the loss of Mrs. Sakuntala Rajan (alias Chakku Rajan).\u00a0 She was seriously ill for months and she passed away in the afternoon on Wed, Feb 24, 2010.\u00a0\u00a0\n\nDr. K.S. Rajan and Mrs Sakuntala Rajan were one of the foremost members of the Indian community dedicated to the preservation of our traditions and values. They initiated several organizations and have several accomplishments to their credit in the field of Carnatic music\u00a0 -- notably the following:\n\n\n<ul>\n\t\n\n<li>The first ever to organize a\u00a0 Lalgudi-Ramani concert in Chicago in 1970<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>They were instrumental to the formation of Satkala Mandir which continues to function with its main goals<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>Chakku was an active participant in the list of volunteers to nurture Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam from the early days of its inception<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>MS Subbulakshmi\/ Sadasivam and all when they gave the first concert in Chicago, it was Chakku and Rajan who meticulously took care of all the concert arrangements and the artists<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>When HTGC was a dream, this family would actively participate in the prayer meetings, and even do Poojas\u00a0 with temporary icons<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>Chakku was one of the ardent supporters of the annadhata scheme of CTU\u00a0 for many years<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>Being conservative and traditional, they brought their\u00a0 two daughters Malini and Neena in the most traditional fashion possible, and both are doing very well<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>There were 6 or 7 families: Rajan Chakku, Savitri-Mani, TES-Usha , Chellam Balakrishnan, Lakshmi Natarajan, Usha-Bala, Rajani-Ranji who used to meet in each other's house virtually every weekend. Later it extended to many others who came to Chicago around mid seventies. Every one moved around two pivotal families- Savitri-Mani and Rajan-Chakku.<\/li>\n\n\n\t\n\n<li>Chakku and Rajan made special efforts to organize concerts of Balamurali Krishna in late 70's.<\/li>\n\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\nI am just recalling those times and events with fond memories as I ruminate over the days gone by.\u00a0 I am yet to find another person like Chakku for the incredible memory on the major as well as details of any social gatherings, experiences dates, visits, timing, dresses, colors and what not.\n\nNeedless to say we feel sad missing such a person.\n\nTES Raghavan\n\nChicago Tyagaraja Utsavam<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Jan 2009<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=948\">CTU loses a devoted well-wisher and volunteer<\/a><a name=\"948\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam mourns the loss of Dr. Lalitha Ramamurthy who passed away at 1 am on Tuesday, January 06, 2009 at the Loyola Medical Center in Chicago.\n\n\n<blockquote>Dear CTU core \/supporters and ardent learners of the Bhagavad Gita and devotees of\u00a0 spiritual saints :\n\nIt is with great sadness that I would like to inform all of you that Mrs. Lalitha Ramamurthy, one of the ardent supporters and committed persons to CTU goals its values and aspirations has passed away this morning (1:00 AM) at the Loyola Medical Center.\u00a0 It was\u00a0 a tragic and unexpected death that Dr. Ramamurthy (our CTU\u2019s front desk in charge) and his sons Santhosh and his wife, Lakshmy and\u00a0 the recently married second son Vasanth and his wife, Sowmya and more tragic still, Lalitha\u2019s father (eighty plus)\u00a0 and Dr. Ramamurthy\u2019s mother (in eighty plus) all have to swallow the shock of their lives.\n\nLailtha, herself a medical doctor was very devoted to Hindu scriptures, Sanskrit learning and teaching with proper pronunciation, and in the early stages she was active in CTU Sahasranamam group learning.\u00a0 As a\u00a0 FAMILY Ramamurthy\u2019s have always committed to our traditions and values irrespective of who propagates those values.\u00a0 Many great Vedantic scholars and vedantic exponents like Uncle Mani, and\u00a0 Mr. Ganesan of Tiruvannamalai Ramanasram and so on\u00a0 visited\u00a0 Chinmaya Mission for a series of lectures and\u00a0 discourses,\u00a0 and for long stay this FAMILY took great care in terms of cooking and carrying lunch and dinner for them.\u00a0 For many years our CTU Mandapam was part of their Pooja room in their house.\n\nOver the years Lalitha got greatly attached to Guru poojas, especially to Kanchi Paramacharyal.\u00a0 While doing the pooja in her family Pooja room with madisar and trying to light the kuthuvilakku with a candle apparently she got fire on her sari on the backside that she did not notice immediately and when she noticed it, it was too late with the complicated madisar of nine yards.\u00a0\n\nWhether it is CTU or the Temples\u00a0 or Chinmaya mission or Satsangs or Asrams there are only a small number of devout Hindus who as\u00a0 FAMILIES commit to our traditions and spiritual values and learning .\u00a0 Some years back the renowned Mathematician Prof. SRS Varadhan came to my house to collect donations for the Hindu Mission Hospital intiated by Kanchi Acharyals. Ramamurthy\u2019s were one of the seven or eight families present for that occasion and they have never hesitated to donate the maximum for such occasions and for such causes.\n\nAs professional doctors, their commitment to our traditions is quite exceptional.\u00a0 I have rarely seen this level of commitment among such families. CTU\u2019s main goal is not just to master or train our next generation into the music of Saint Tyagaraja but to inculcate in their minds also his deeper spiritual values.\u00a0\u00a0 Many children have formally learnt the Bhagavad Geeta from Lalitha Ramamurthy.\u00a0\n\nWhile in CTU we strive to inculcate our traditions via the imparting of Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam, families like Ramamurthys and many organizations have been actively imparting the recitation of the Bhagavad Geetha.\n\nIn grief\nTES Raghavan\nChicago Tyagaraja Utsavam\n\n\u00a0<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Dec 2008<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=769\">Obituary: CTU loses an ardent supporter<\/a><a name=\"769\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam mourns the loss of Dr. N. Krishnamachari (alias Chari ) who passed away at 3am on Thursday, December 18, 2008 at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago.\n\n\n<blockquote>I knew Krishnamachari from 1970. He had a Ph. D in Chemistry from Canada and moved to Chicago as a post doctoral researcher in Chemistry at the University of Chicago.\u00a0 His wife (just married) Kalyani got a job at the University Book stores.\u00a0 He realized that the scope was little for postdocs in Chemistry and\u00a0 decided to switch jobs.\u00a0 He\u00a0 took an M.B.A from the University of Chicago and had his first job with a company close to AT &T . Even though I knew him as an orthodox and tradition loving person, even though with my friend T.Parthasarathy and Ranjani we used to play cards and found him a brilliant person whatever he chose to do,\u00a0 I had the unique opportunity to see his emotional and human side. My mother passed away in India in 1979 and I was emotionally shattered . People had assembled in my Oak Park apartment to console me. I had a call from my uncle Pattu Mama in India who said that it is my duty as her only son to come to India, not alone but with my family to do the last rites for my mother.\u00a0 I wanted to have a glimpse of her but in orthodox families the body had to be cremated within hours.\u00a0 He said even if I show up after 5 days, it won\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Tara was a month old baby and Deepa\u2019s passport and Usha\u2019s passports had expired. Tara had to get a passport. (Hema) Rajagopalan used his charge card to charge for the flight tickets for all of us and he arranged for that. I needed some one to take me around downtown to apply for passport, get that the same day, etc. Chari had just taken up his new job. I don\u2019t know what arrangement he made at his new office.\u00a0 He took me in his car to various offices, will make rounds and wait at places to speed up the process and we came home in the evening. He was crying with me with emotion and was talking about his mother and her own struggles in her life and so on.\n\nWhen CTU as an organization was initiated by Dr ST Rao of Madison, Wisconsin, the excitement of organizing the Utsavam kept several families as close kith and kin.\u00a0 He made his best attempts to train his children to learn music under Mrs Saroja Seshadri (for Bhooma) and Sri. Prasad Ramachandran (violin for Govindan).\u00a0 He was very particular that Sahasranamam chanting must be a serious and integral part of the Utsavam.\u00a0 People like C.N Krishnaswamy, MV Sunder, Chari, MG Srinivasan were all part and parcel of the organization and so were many core volunteers.\u00a0 Dr. KG Srinivasan, Dr. ST Rao, Dr. Venkatraman, Dr. BN Sridharan (Madison) were very instrumental to registering the organization. While Chari was taking care of all accounting and cash collection right at the hall, during Utsavam days I heard from his coworkers at the front desk (grad students from Wisconsin that no one could escape his eyes if they ever attempted any free ride. His meticulous accounting would need a separate chapter on its own.\n\nHe found Dr M.G Srinivasan as the right companion to his tasks at the front desk and as devout and religious persons they enjoyed each other\u2019s company at the front desk. Though I knew MG Srinivasan from early seventies,\u00a0 his active involvement at the Utsavam started with group practice of Sahasranamam which was often headed by Chari. That is when we all realized our recitation limitations and slowly we felt that E.G. Nadhan is the best among us for running the Sahsranamam sessions. While some of us cared for pure recitation,\u00a0 Chari wanted people to know the meaning of all slokas and he did independently a lot of work in this direction and has summarized the commentaries of Adi Sankara and Parasara Bhattar and so on. Many hours he spent with MG Srinivasan in proof correcting CTU versions in Tamil, Devanagari, and Roman fonts. In proof correction he was a true master.\n\nIt was only with the meticulous listening and correction on the spot in our pronunciation that we could make a recording of Sahasranamam with repetition (Sandai-Nadhan--Geetha Sadagopan-TES).\n\nHe decided to devote his time fully to temple activities and Vaishnavism in the last few years and when I asked him as to who will shoulder this task besides Sampath Ayyangar and Alamelu, his clear choice was Venkatesh and he had a real affection for Venkatesh as one very religious and quite professional in the field of accounting. Sampath and virtually any one and every one said the same. He wanted me to quit CTU activities and devote my energy to temple related activities.\n\nGrief stricken,\nTES Raghavan\n\nChicago Tyagaraja Utsavam<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Feb 2007<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=81\">Mr S.V. Krishnan passes<\/a><a name=\"81\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>Dear friends and music lovers\n\nI would like to share with you all about a real music lover, organizer, one of the <strong>early pillars for the growth of the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam at every stage <\/strong>.\n\nComing from traditional Palakkad families, he was very successful as a Real Estate person in Coimbatore and could feel in his conversation his business acumen. There are millions like him and it has no value for me or for music at large. He used to visit his sister Chellam Balakrishnan more or less every year and in one of those years we accidentally got to know each other sharing some music of Lalgudi, Balamurali etc. and I never had any inkling he had real musical interest beyond tape collection. Being a Real Estate person, he was able to design a nice Music Sabha in Coimbatore for the Carnatic music community at large and started organizing a series of concerts- called ragha Sudha-Gokulashtami series and son. The hall was well equipped with excellent recording facilities for thoise days and the greatest of veteran and prodigy musicians like Chemmangudi, Lalgudi, MSG, Ramani, Nedunuri, DK Jayaraman, TV Sankaranarayanan , Seshagopalan , Mandolin Srinivas and many many others were very happy to perform in his sabha as a prestigious place to perform. One year as a family we stayed for 3 days with him listening to some concerts of Aruna Sairam (?, Geetha Raja) and son. Over the years he decided to transplant the same Sabha into madras area and nothing could be better than a sabha of size (150-200 at most) fully air conditioned and even more than anything in the heart of music place- Mylapore close to Sastri Hall. There are many many sabhas in Madras organizing our music and in what se nse he was special. <script><\/script>\n\nHe started believing in two things: 1. There should be no compromise on the traditional conservative music. 2. Ragas like Todi, Bhairavi, Atana, Kambhodhi must be part of any concert for the musicians to be considered worthy. 2. Once established musicians tend to demand more and he never liked the idea of compromising with quality concerts at nominal cost kind. This lead him to make a major policy change in his sabha concerts: Encourage young and upcoming musicians who won't compromise their traditional music for box office. Thus many veteran musicians who are not in the box office market, but highly scholarly tend to perform in his sabha.\n\nI used to spend 3 to 4 hours in his house talking to him about music and publications etc. He virtually treated his house as a godown for many music books that cannot be easily stored and I remember seeing the magnum opus book of TK Govinda Rao on Carnatic music book of 600 or 800 pages stored in his house. Any time a musician was coming to Chicago, I will call him and talk to him direct about: What do you think of so and so? He was very blunt and he was also enthusiastic about several musicians and wanted me to arrange their programs in Chicago as superb upcoming musicians.\n\nOne day, he wanted me to come to his house in Bhimasena Gardens and have dinner with him. The two girls Ranjani and Gayatri came in Pavadai Melakku with Mr Balasubramaniam (their father). SVK said, the highest of music you should get from these two girls. They played duet violin very beautifully, but having heard people like Lalgudi, MSG and so on, it did not leave the impression I should have had-for lack of understanding of the pracheena ragas.\nWhen we now listen to Ranjani\/Gayatri now we know where they stand and what people like him have done for them to blossom. One year I was struggling to find a suitable main musician for Utsavam. I had to entirely depend on Shashank's father for help. All I had wa s a CD called Rasanubhavam by Sanjay Subramaniam. Shashank's father suggested Sanjay and I was handling all these deals from Germany while on a research assignment. SVK said emphatically that \"Raghavan- Sanjay and TM Krishna are two names that will be like solid rock in Carnatic music. Believe me. While I missed the concert, I felt happy for the very successful program. Same applies to Mysore Nagaraj\/Manjunath concert. We buy many products based on LOGO. I could go by the words of SV <span id=\"st\" class=\"st\">Krishnan<\/span>. <script><\/script>\n\nWe were trying to make the silver Jubilee a grand festival. It had two aspects: Arranging concerts. bringing out a special brochure. I have never ever talked to\nChemmangudi or DKP or KVN . I wanted these veteran musicians blessing for our CTU. In fact I was very keen on blessings from MS, TN <span id=\"st\" class=\"st\">Krishnan<\/span>, Lalgudi, Nedunuri and many more. In fact SVK promised to contact each of these musicians and get for CTU their blessing letters. Dr KS Rajan was willing to approach MS and Lalg udi. I was making phone calls after phone calls and when I received the first letter from Chemmangudi I was in tears. CTU has done nothing to many of them. It is documented in the silver jubilee volume where we have blessings from: Cehmmangudi, DK Pattammal, KV Narayanaswamy, Lalgudi, TK Govinda Rao. Time was running out. Otherwise SVK would have worked wonders on many more. When our CTU books were produced, SVK said, that your book will have no value without the stamp of a professional musician.\n\nAs you all know we give some token gift to core volunteers in the form of some Tanjore paintings. SVK will spend the money and buy them and pack them ready for some one to pick up. He was willing to mail them too. He would openly tell to audience in his Sabha at the end of some concerts that I attended- \"Friends- Professor Raghavan and his core volunteers celebrate Tyagaraja Utsavam in Chicago and they do what I am doing here Raga Sudha.\"\n\nCTU has lost a permanen t and crucial musical contact once and for all. I have lost one of my best friends. Madras music community has lost one of the best organizers with clear musical vision. Chellam Balakrishna has lost her dear and loving brother. I tried to Mrs <span id=\"st\" class=\"st\">Krishnan<\/span> in India. They are all busy with organizing the last rights .\n\nIn grief\nTES Raghavan<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<h1>Jan 2007<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/chicagotyagarajautsavam.org\/?p=1015\">Indu Mami<\/a><a name=\"1015\" \/><\/h2>\n\n<\/small> <\/a> <\/small>\n\n<p>CTU owes Indu Mami -- as we affectionately refer to Indu Krishnamurthy -- a debt of gratitude for her enormous efforts in organizing Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam\u2019s Western Orchestra program for a large number of students. Without Indu-Mami there would have been no Western Orchestra program.\n\nI have known for decades that Revati and Natesan have been very supportive and successful in encouraging CTU children - especially young girls - for Sahasranama learning and musical chanting. However, only in the mid 90\u2019s for the first time I learned from Tyagaraja Rao, that Indu Mami had organized a Western Orchestra playing Tyagaraja Kritis with Indian and American students in the Houston and Dallas area. I was immediately keen on bringing that group to perform at our Utsavam. Though Indu mami had been attending our Utsavam from the early eighties, she was more a part of the audience than taking an active part in CTU. I could say the same about MG Srinivasan or Ramaswamy or Sunder or any of our core volunteers. I contacted Indu Mami (about the Western Orchestra) and to my surprise she said she could train our kids, just as well (as the Houston kids), for such a performance. My calculations were only on the expenses and transportation costs and suddenly I realized that she could simply tap the western instrumental training of Indian kids for a grand performance at a minimal cost. I jumped at the idea. I did not realize what a tremendous potential she had, till I saw her in action.\nThe rehearsals had to be scheduled only after each student getting at least three private lesson from her. She was very quick in correcting the students\u2019 errors on bowing, tuning and aberrations of musical notes. Her ability to spot and correct the errors then and there was phenomenal. Her quick distribution of written music in western notation for several Kritis, her scheduling of 30 to 40 children for rehearsals and doing them successfully- these were remarkable feats by any standard. Finally, on the big day, I could not believe my ears when my son Manu played Vatapi (Hamsadhwani) on the violin, though he had zero formal training or understanding of what a raga meant.\nI knew from the late 70's that Indu Mami was cinema actor Ranjan's sister and that she was my father's student. Brinda and Indu as they were affectionately called by my father (the sisters) were taught Sanskrit at their tender age of 8 or 9, that too around 5am everyday! That was in Triplicane, Madras. My father was all praise for their sharpness and discipline. I vaguely remember visiting a spectacular Navaratri Golu in their house.\nIndu Mami was also an outstanding professional artistic painter. When I came to know that, my immediate interest was in getting a genuine painting for the cover of the CTU Brochure Tyagaraja Vijayam. From then on, she would happily send me the originals which I continued to request for many, many years. The serene illustration of Vishnu on the cover of the CTU\u2019s Vishnu Sahasranama Stotram booklet is her gift to CTU. While people were bringing bazaar calendars to copy for the cover picture, Indu Mami gifted the best for the Utsavam.\nThis year (2006) in February when I spoke about CTU in Madras television and Jaya TV, one of the basic queries was how we should inspire Western trained students to play our music. I made it a point to specifically mention Mami's immortal contribution to CTU, her musical gifts, and her unique books on Carnatic music in Western notation.\nWhen I came back from India in March 2006, I had a sudden call from Mami. She apparently came to know that I had specifically talked in Madras Television about her contributions to CTU. She said she had tears in her eyes when she heard about my talk. And she said, though due to old age she could not continue to train kids for the orchestra, she would somehow organize the Western Orchestra once again, for the next year (2007). Unfortunately this will not be. Our young and enthusiastic children who are good in Western music have been denied a superb teacher, as Indu Mami is no more around to inspire them into Carnatic music.\n\nIndu Mami is a teacher, a scholar and a devout lover of music, painting, and the arts, Sanskrit and the classics. Needless to say, such persons are rare and we were fortunate to have known and been associated with such a volunteer for CTU.\n\nTES Raghavan<\/p>\n\n\n\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam fondly remembers with great respect the contributions of legendary artists and dedicated community volunteers. 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