Cleveland Aradhana 2007

sukanv · Post by **sukanv** » 27 Apr 2007, 07:06

Pictures from the Cleveland Aradhana 2007 can be viewed at www.sruti.com

Thanks

ramanathan · Post by **ramanathan** » 30 Apr 2007, 10:55

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 30 Apr 2007, 12:25

Thank you rAmanathan and sukanv, especially liked Prof Trichy Sankaran and TNS snap(hopefully I will hear them together in future..). It is refreshing to see that the mikes are not bunched in cleveland ,unlike thiruvayAru. I also did not know that ravikiran can play kanjira.

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 30 Apr 2007, 22:49

Insider feedback - cleveland inaugural concert - a casual chat with several parents disclosed the following facts - the kids learnt through skype with no face to face lessons. Later AS Murali was sent to east cost to teach some kids and did a good job. Suguna Purushottamam was sent to take care of kids in west and midwest. Thiagarajan Ramani was asked to take care of flute. The feedback from the assigned kids is that these two spent all the time trying to make money by taking private lessons for other students and did not train the inaugural concert participants. Jaylakshmi sekhar thought the veena participant. Sudhindran - Srimusham Raja Rao's student spent 15 days each with the two mrudangam kids and thought them. No one was sent to train the violin students and there was absolutely no training given for violin what so ever. It was advertised that TN Krishnan would teach, but not a single class was given. Students in the midwest like St Louis, Texas, Alabama were feeling hopeless and lost as there was absolutely no training provided by Suguna Purushottamam and Thiagarajan Ramani. The results were obvious at the inaugural concert and only students who were trained by AS Murali got a chance to exhibit their individual manodharma talent. The same students were given multiple opportunities and favoritism's for either hosting artists or being core volenteers for the aradhana committee even though their kids did not deserve to be at the lime light multiple times like Sharanya sivakumar, Lathika Sridhar, Vibav Mouli.

meena · Post by **meena** » 30 Apr 2007, 22:53

whats this having to take lessons and is it true?

http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/bbs/forums/ ... sts=3#M187

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 30 Apr 2007, 23:04

Well hang out with N Ramani and his folks and you will win. Hang around with Carnatica Brothers and you will win. Host artists that are judges, take music lessons from artists that will be the judges and you will win. Get Monopoly and advertise yourself that artists only like to stay with you when they visit your town and only your kids will win. Results are guarenteed!
That's the formula.

sridevi · Post by **sridevi** » 30 Apr 2007, 23:14

The only thing that kids/parents, who do all this , will gain, is probably an admission into a *TOP* school.. and then CM is just a thing of the past. sadly, in this era of building your RESUME for a college beginning from preschool ( or pre-preschool) CM seems to be a favorite choice for southie parents.
Ultimately, as the saying goes, "proof of the pudding is in the eating" and so, prize winner or not, student of so-and-so or NOT , the music that is generated will speak volumes about the saadhana and training.
But in all fairness to the teachers, I found the lessons, that I worked on, quite good. I have worked my way through half the concert, and am working on the next half. I will post a recording of my renditions on this forum at a later date. But again, I have learnt for quite a few years and am doing it out of my own passion to learn and at my own pace, and that makes a huge difference

Sridevi

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 01 May 2007, 00:20

yes, the recordings are great and they were thought by great artists. It is just like learning from TV. Different from learning directly from them and having them check what you are singing and correcting you when mistakes are made. no doubt the lessons are great.

sridevi · Post by **sridevi** » 01 May 2007, 00:53

Agreed. You would definitely want the feedback preferably by the person who taught you. However it is different from learning from TV unless you record it and watch/listen over and over again.
Also if you listen to your recording you can identify the lapses although it is harder to correct it by yourself.

I have not looked at the pallavi module though.. SO have no idea how the manodharma aspect of the pallavi is handled therein.

while all these new methods are welcome to students who otherwise have no access to gurus, it will never be the same as having a guru- a wholesome parent figure kind of person who can guide you with face-to-face lessons.
But then, may be it is the transition period that is being difficult. Remember, that the gurukula system is long gone and at the time when the transition from traditional gurukula to a school type setting happened, there were many skeptics who probably thought that music cannot be taught for 1 hr a day for 3 days a week, and mould a concert artiste from such a system of education.

Oh well.. I for one am glad that those lessons are available and I got something to do during my commute to and from work and also increase my reportoire, even though at a snail's pace during the interim period between gurus.

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 01 May 2007, 01:28

a template was provided and every one learnt that for standard pallavi. Later, they were told what is expected of them and they went to their local teachers in USA and got help for alapana, swaram, niraval and raga malika. AS murali helped vocal students with manodharma, nothing was original. every one was given phrases to sing for each avartha. For violin, they got help from their individual local teachers. flute local teacher helped. that's how they pulled it off. they reharsed for 15 hrs one day before the concert and made sure that all fell in sync.

sridevi · Post by **sridevi** » 01 May 2007, 01:40

Hmmm... guess even for the bhairavi krithi, the same technique was applied for the manodharma aspects.
I believe each participant paid 1500$ to be a part of the team and that probably paid for the teachers' fees, etc.
One thing is for sure.. learn as many krithis as you may with the tape/mp3 method. However, rigourous one-on-one sessions is the only way to improve on the manodharma along with lots and lots of focused listening to good renditions.

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 01 May 2007, 01:47

You bet

)))
Both Bhairavi and Purvi Kalyani was structured and manodharma was thought and reproduced.
$1500 was original
later another $200

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 01 May 2007, 01:50

originally 34 registered. when they came to know that it is not like how it was advertised and the vidwans mentioned will not teach, several dropped out. that left the team with just 14 students. N Ramani contacted his student who is now a teacher in Detroit and asked her to send all 7 flute students. Later some people contacted the organizers and came through recommendation. The final count was 28 plus two adult tambura's making it 30.

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 01 May 2007, 03:08

Anyone know about the mridangam players in the concert? Who trained them? The website says Srimushnam Raja Rao was going to train them. How did they factor into the concert...I'm guessing that it would be easiest for them to blend in since they could just follow the others for swarams etc... any comments from people there?

SSK · Post by **SSK** » 01 May 2007, 04:43

Mridangam players were trained by Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao and / or Sri H.S Sudheendra from Karnataka.

LovingCM · Post by **LovingCM** » 01 May 2007, 07:31

Violin students were trained by Akkarai Subalakshmi and Thyagarajan Ramani for a short period of time about 10 days.

chalanata · Post by **chalanata** » 01 May 2007, 08:08

from how it emerges i think the next music season during december 2007 will not be at chennai and instead will be at cleveland!

nadhasudha · Post by **nadhasudha** » 01 May 2007, 17:48

facto wrote "Hang around with Carnatica Brothers and you will win"

This is SO not true. My son is a disciple of Shashikiran(one of the Carnatica Brothers) and he was judged by them both during the Alapana and Kalpanaswaram competitions. His guru Shashikiran refrained from judging him for both the competitions and he did not win a prize in either of the categories. His final standing was around 5 th in both the categories

Please refrain from making blanket statements in regards to who will win.

Having said that, I do agree that the Cleveland Aradhana judging mechanism does not allow for personal feedback for the kids competing. However, my son did feel happy that he was able to sing without fear in front of great vidwans such as TK Govinda Rao.

In regards to the concert,my son did not participate and hence we do not know how it was orchestrated.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 01 May 2007, 20:14

nadhasudha,
Thanks for your post which gives another dimension to children's participation. I am glad you mention 'blanket statements'. I would add 'getting on the bandwagon' to that. In any celebration, may it be a community one or a family affair, however well planned, a few shortcomings are bound to be there. The bigger the affair, the more the problems since more individuals are involved. There might have been a few artistes (may be not) who didn't do their part of the job properly, or it could just be parental reaction (fair or otherwise).
That something as meaningful as a tyagaraja festival takes place so far away from tiruvaiyAru, Chennai or other indian cities, that too in a land of a different culture is, if anything, praiseworthy. Constructive criticism is healthy. I am sure suggestions to organizers for avoiding problems in the future is a good way to go about it. That might help.
Finally, your son's being happy about his involvement in the aradhana says something about the festival, the child's interest in music and the way you have perhaps brought him up in making him realize that winning is not what it is all about...

whoami · Post by **whoami** » 02 May 2007, 06:06

LovingCM posted wrong information. Absolutely NO ONE trained the violin students. I AM FRIENDS WITH THE PARENTS OF BOTH THE VIOLIN KIDS THAT PLAYED. I myself heard my friends protest several times that since no one thought violin, atleast the local teacher should be acknowledged. Please dont post about who trained without knowing or speaking to the participants directly.

whoami · Post by **whoami** » 02 May 2007, 06:07

they paid quite a lot for this and feel bad about the neglect done to violin kids

Facto · Post by **Facto** » 02 May 2007, 06:31

Hey - I sincerely appreciate what Cleveland Aradhana Organizers are doing. They are fabulous and have done a great job in making cleveland the only place outside the saint's birth place as great as they did. No other organization comes even a little close to cleveland aradhana in USA. Absolutely no doubts about that. They have done a great job of organizinh the kids program. Yes, there loop holes, but over all it was great. With every great organization and the huge scale in which they operate, some loop holes are common and that's what was pointed out. All feedback provided was after talking directly with participants.

LovingCM · Post by **LovingCM** » 02 May 2007, 07:27

I do not know who has given you the information, but i do know one of the parents and heard from another person that Violin students were trained as i mentioned. We can probably question the amount of time they were taught was not enough to perform in a concert level. Sure, the local teachers were the one trained them for the most part as the tutors from India came to this country around the Aradhana so the parents were getting desperate to get the kids trained. With due respect to WhoAMI, i do know some of the parents whose children were participated and also, some of the artists who have trained them. I do not post anything that i don't know of.

I completely agree with the fact that they paid quite a lot for this and feel bad that they were neglected in the sense, they did not get solid amount of training from the professionals as promised....

whoami · Post by **whoami** » 02 May 2007, 07:42

dear lovingcm - please contact the two violin kids and you will find out that your contact gave you wrong info. doesn't matter, the violin kids performed very well without any training from anyone other than their local teachers and that in itself speaks very high volumes about them and the standard in which they are. no offense and not meant to be personal against lovingcm, the violin kid is my neighbors and so i know what i am writing!!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 02 May 2007, 07:56

We have to be proud of the children...

cm_fan07 · Post by **cm_fan07** » 02 May 2007, 08:19

whoami wrote:dear lovingcm - please contact the two violin kids and you will find out that your contact gave you wrong info. doesn't matter, the violin kids performed very well without any training from anyone other than their local teachers and that in itself speaks very high volumes about them and the standard in which they are. no offense and not meant to be personal against lovingcm, the violin kid is my neighbors and so i know what i am writing!!

I was at Cleveland. I am friends with the older of the two kdis from Sacremento. I asked him how much he learned from Ramani's son. He said that Thiagarajan just asked him to play the songs, which he did. He then played a little bit of swarams, nirval, etc. with thiagarajan doing more supervising what and looking at what this kid already knew how to play. There apparently wasn;t much teaching he sad, but they certainly was some interactions.

guru70 · Post by **guru70** » 02 May 2007, 09:45

i came to know ASMurali did well his part in the festival, may i know his prfile, pl inform about him.

shripathi_g · Post by **shripathi_g** » 02 May 2007, 10:25

whoami wrote "I myself heard my friends protest several times that since no one thought violin, atleast the local teacher should be acknowledged."

Facto wrote "Jaylakshmi sekhar thought the veena participant. Sudhindran - Srimusham Raja Rao's student spent 15 days each with the two mrudangam kids and thought them."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? :-p

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 02 May 2007, 12:32

Shripathi_g

I was thinking exactly that !! In other words I was thinking on those lines...well....thought in those lines....

rangahome · Post by **rangahome** » 02 May 2007, 19:09

Shripathi_g and Sam

)

More clues to aid your thinking. Look at the profiles and registration dates. Happy thinking.... !!!

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 02 May 2007, 19:50

Elementary My dear Watson

sridevi · Post by **sridevi** » 02 May 2007, 20:31

hmmmmm.... previous experiences have "thought" us to think along those lines..

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 02 May 2007, 21:59

It took me a rather long time to figure that out...haha

SSK · Post by **SSK** » 02 May 2007, 22:05

I guess there is a lot of valuable discussion on this thread from constructive criticism, to motives of participants, their parents and organizers... And looks like every one contibuting to this thread agrees upon one thing. That is against all odds of schedules, timezones, technological challenges, generation gaps between a heavily computer savy kids to "I don't want to touch a computer" kind of guru's, the kids did a great job.

What will be helpful kids and organizers alike are, what can they learn from all of this. Towards this end, I would to request all of you to capture "Lessons Learned" in the following format:

Observation: <briefly describe the observed problem. Do not analyze or make any reccommendations or assumptions.>
e.g: There was lack of coordination between students and teachers.

Analysis: < briefly describe your analysis here >
e.g. meetings were planned very well and commitments obtained from all students and teachers.

Recomendation: <if you were to re do it again, how would you do it differently. Be honest even if you have to be blunt. You can always choose words carefully. Every one here needs to be a big sport about it>

Having said that here is one from me:

Observation:
The violin students did not get training as promissed.

Analysis:
The organizers promised, the violin students will be taught by Prof. T.N. Krishnan. The parents of the students (one of them from Sacramento) worked very hard to accomplish the task of having Prof. Krishnan teacher their kid/s. Still it did not work out. My analysis is that Prof. Krishnan did not think high of the caliber of the student, to help him. This is nothing new in carnatic music. So he decided not to teach. I may be wrong here, and I hope I am.

Reccomendation:

Organizers don't necessarily have to go stellar artists to get them to teach the kids. On this thread I read that they were taught partly by Ramani's son, and also Akkarai Subbalakshmi.. The organizers need to consider various factors before promissing things to students. The way I see it, Cleveland Aradhana would not have any trouble, signing up 30 kids at $2000 a person.

shripathi_g · Post by **shripathi_g** » 02 May 2007, 22:07

Now if only I can find a teacher who can think me.

nadhasudha · Post by **nadhasudha** » 02 May 2007, 22:19

Lesson Learned from the music competition

Observation:
The music competition does not allow personal feedback for the participants.

Analysis:
For participants who did not win there is no way of knowing how they did. What was their overall standing. How did they do? What were their ratings or marks? Very often kids are left wondering what went wrong in their presentation.

Recomendation:
Now that the Aradhana charges 50$ per participant per category, it would be in the best interest of carnatic music to give each participant personal feedback on the factors they are being graded against such as Shruti Shuddam,pronounciation,voice culture etc. This will help the participant understand their shortcomings and try and improve. It is not very often that kids from North America get to perform before vidwans who are Sangita kalanidhis and this opportunity must be used to give constructive feedback to the participant.

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 03 May 2007, 10:28

Hi rangahome

Thank you for "thoughting" us on the intricacies of profiles etc. Yep, I see what you are trying to thought !!:)

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 03 May 2007, 19:46

The thought the thoughter thought has thought us
who the thoughters are indeed!
(If this reminds you of a famous thirukkuRaL, it is no accident

srikrishna · Post by **srikrishna** » 06 May 2007, 17:48

Facto wrote:Insider feedback - cleveland inaugural concert - a casual chat with several parents disclosed the following facts - the kids learnt through skype with no face to face lessons. Later AS Murali was sent to east cost to teach some kids and did a good job. Suguna Purushottamam was sent to take care of kids in west and midwest. Thiagarajan Ramani was asked to take care of flute. The feedback from the assigned kids is that these two spent all the time trying to make money by taking private lessons for other students and did not train the inaugural concert participants. Jaylakshmi sekhar thought the veena participant. Sudhindran - Srimusham Raja Rao's student spent 15 days each with the two mrudangam kids and thought them. No one was sent to train the violin students and there was absolutely no training given for violin what so ever. It was advertised that TN Krishnan would teach, but not a single class was given. Students in the midwest like St Louis, Texas, Alabama were feeling hopeless and lost as there was absolutely no training provided by Suguna Purushottamam and Thiagarajan Ramani. The results were obvious at the inaugural concert and only students who were trained by AS Murali got a chance to exhibit their individual manodharma talent. The same students were given multiple opportunities and favoritism's for either hosting artists or being core volenteers for the aradhana committee even though their kids did not deserve to be at the lime light multiple times like Sharanya sivakumar, Lathika Sridhar, Vibav Mouli.

As a parent of one of the participants, I beg to differ with the contents of this message in defence of Vidushi Suguna Purushottaman. She spent time with my child on the skype twice for about four hours and in person for about seven hours. She checked and corrected mistakes in her renditions, especially in kritis that do not have the same patanthara that she has. I felt she was patient and for an artist of her calibre, quite approachable. She also made her do the alapana and swaram for Mohanam, Bhairavi and Purvi Kalyani and corrected her just like her teacher. She did not provide any ``coached'' manodharmam. In fact, as if she knew this posting will come some time in the future, she did ask us what we wanted her to sing for the manodharmam part. We told her that she was the best person to judge and that we would stand by her judgement. We are content with the decision of the artist.

As far as training the concert participants is concerned, it depends mostly on the expectations of the parents (and hence, the participants). There is a nice Bhartrihari quote ``Vibhushanam maunam apanditaanaam''; it is better not to sing than to make mistakes on the stage in manodharmam.

The comment about private lessons is irrelevant; the question is whether the artist was available to correct mistakes in the renditions of the kritis. I also feel the comment about Sharanya sivakumar and others unwarranted. I did not see anything wrong with giving Sharanya multiple opportunities as I thought she sang well in whatever opportunities she received.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 07 May 2007, 08:46

All in all, it sounds like any other competition anywhere in anything. The children would not go through all the trouble if they were not truly interested. Parental aspirations and goading alone can't do it. What matters in the end is the children's enthusiasm in learning CM, taking part in competitions, meeting their peers and as they do--eventually learning on their own that winning is nice but even if they didn't, they did gain knowledge and had fun. A few winning the Nobel in the sciences does not mean that there aren't any other meritorious scientists on earth...

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 07 May 2007, 09:46

well said arasi

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 07 May 2007, 10:27

A few winning the Nobel in the sciences does not mean that there aren't any other meritorious scientists on earth...

Yes, nicely said, Arasi. That is something not to be forgotten. That is applicable in many situations and as we all know that includes sangeetha kalanidhi.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 07 May 2007, 11:08

No wonder Mark Twain said

No man should escape our Universities without knowing how little he knows. He must have some sense of the fact that ,not through his fault, but inherently in the nature of things, he is going to be an ignorant man , and so is everybody else.

Remember those Class reunions ?
Where Success in later life never fell into any set pattern ?
And with a good sprinkling of them struggling to find the meaning of Success itself ..

If I would have my way , I will never let the children compete.
Except with themselves.

sbala · Post by **sbala** » 07 May 2007, 11:49

Something that I had read long time back and ever since I've had scant regard for awards or any form of excessive praise. I think it's by Robinson Jeffers.

If God has been good enough to give you a poet
Then listen to him.
But for God's sake let him alone until he is dead;
no prizes, no ceremony,
They kill the man.

A poet is one who listens
To nature and his own heart; and if the noise of the world grows up
around him, and if he is tough enough,
He can shake off his enemies, but not his friends.

That is what withered Wordsworth and muffled Tennyson, and would have
killed Keats; that is what makes
Hemingway play the fool and Faulkner forget his art.

rskumar · Post by **rskumar** » 21 May 2007, 01:23

Facto wrote:Insider feedback - cleveland inaugural concert - a casual chat with several parents disclosed the following facts - the kids learnt through skype with no face to face lessons. Later AS Murali was sent to east cost to teach some kids and did a good job. Suguna Purushottamam was sent to take care of kids in west and midwest. Thiagarajan Ramani was asked to take care of flute. The feedback from the assigned kids is that these two spent all the time trying to make money by taking private lessons for other students and did not train the inaugural concert participants. Jaylakshmi sekhar thought the veena participant. Sudhindran - Srimusham Raja Rao's student spent 15 days each with the two mrudangam kids and thought them. No one was sent to train the violin students and there was absolutely no training given for violin what so ever. It was advertised that TN Krishnan would teach, but not a single class was given. Students in the midwest like St Louis, Texas, Alabama were feeling hopeless and lost as there was absolutely no training provided by Suguna Purushottamam and Thiagarajan Ramani. The results were obvious at the inaugural concert and only students who were trained by AS Murali got a chance to exhibit their individual manodharma talent. The same students were given multiple opportunities and favoritism's for either hosting artists or being core volenteers for the aradhana committee even though their kids did not deserve to be at the lime light multiple times like Sharanya sivakumar, Lathika Sridhar, Vibav Mouli.

Very interesting comment reported here and I sincerely appreciate it in a democratic world . Having said that, here are a few suggestions, for you to set a good example for yourself, your kids, our community and our proud country as a whole -
1. If your comments/ contents/ intents are genuine, write with all your contact details as to who you are, how you can be contacted, source of your information, clear suggestions for correcting the so called biased system, especially when you are writing in a public forum making sweeping statements about so many people (accomplished vidwans like Suguna teacher, Thyagarajan Sir, Organizer Mr.Sundaram, all others involved in this grand initiative that includes unaccomplished people like me - Sharanya's Dad aka Kumar - in one go).
2.Alternatively, write to one of us directly - I can share all the contact details of Mr.Ram Mouli/Nandini as well as Mr.Sridhar from Boston (after talking to them). Get your facts right and contribute with constructive criticism for the improvement of the system, which might benefit your child and many others in future
3. If you have not done already (I do not know how to write to you or call you in the absence of contact details- to validate) please volunteer / host atleast once - so you can educate yourself on the full package benefits of the hosted deal - favoritism et al
4. If you do not like any of the above - there is one more option - and in my opinion this is the best and surest of all - since this is the secret recipe of my daughter's progress (she is yet to accomplish in my opinion) from 1998 when she first got rejected outright in the Thyagaraja competition at CSU.

Be positive, learn to trust and respect others especially your fellow community members, more so the vidwans - who also sweat it out as judges, teachers when they can make more money in giving concerts (I can also share one or two cases of how much they get paid for the whole contract which you are free to audit) - in case you have not forgotten the first lesson at school - Annay, Pitha and Gurus are deivams! And if you want to teach your next generation the same culture,

participate actively in the system, understand, explain and direct your child to work hard and achieve success.

There is one more reason why I am saying this - as I have witnessed this first hand with the east coast group - the kids amongst themselves are far more matured and balanced than some adults like you making these diparaging remarks just to bring disrepute to a major accomplishment and contribution by CTAF for the kids in USA.

And above all, if you do not want the blog exchanges - call me @ 609 721 3260 or email me anytime at vidkum@gmail.com. I will share all the inner details of the inagural concert - many of which I have recordings, or in emails or Skype conversations - valid proof of how this was pulled off. I can assure you- it still has lots of juicy information for the blog - but will also have recipes for success that can be of use to you.
To summarize -

The entire exercise was to the original plan if you take VVS's communications in full

The outcome was way above the expectation knowing fully well the challenges ahead of every single member who actually contributed to this grand initiative - vidwans, teachers, parents, kids, volunteers, media et al

We had 5-6 months of direct conversations amongts ourselves and with the teachers and organizers (I have been an organizer for nearly 30+years so I know what it takes) for each one of us to get our grievances sorted out; may be you were busy blogging crap messages then

Upon one phone call from VVS I got dragged into this volunteering here, in an unplanned manner. All the parents and students in East Coast - met , planned, exchanged a ton of communication to make the most out of one of the most committed musician Mr.A.S.Murali - who was ready with a Shrudhi box ON within 3 hrs of landing in USA, chasing me for the schedule - after a 17hr delay in his inbound flight and above all, collaborated with vocalists, flutists, veena thanks to teachers like Jayalakshmi Sekhar who drove nearly 100 miles each day to make this happen. Attempts were made to get Suguna teacher's students to collaborate for rehearsals on Skype - she was available but only with some students. Considering the technical challenges - other parents (like Nadhan - Athreya's Dad) who were taught by Mr.Sudheendran (Mridangam) opted to have recordings of the rehearsals via (.wav/mp3 files exchanged via You Send It ftp transfer to get the accompaniments aligned with the vocalists. If my guess is right about who you are - you had also requested me for the files without checking your emails ! Bottomline - respected and accomplished musicians were sent as teachers for on-site teaching (not to "take care" of the kids ) which they did exceptionally well. So in this world of outsourcing and technology this is a major accomplishment and eye opener for many aspiring kids like Sharanya, Vaibhav, Latika, Veena every other kid that participated in/witnessed this concert - as they have discovered a viable option to take advanced lessons from the vidwans in India ( I will be more than glad to share what challenges we (us and Moulis) faced with Internet based teaching for our kids from a child prodigy in India, prior to Skype)

If this is not enough, I can arrange to have any vidwan that you may recommend to come to the table and have an open debate on your comments of merits and demerits of some kids named above by you; who do not deserve being presented the way they were at the concert. I will share the statistical data of the decline in % of their voice with respect to the rest (from original plan to what actually transpired on that day) - And if those vidwans share your sentiments/conclusions - Sharanya will stop her public appearances giving Carnatic Concert; and I will ask Times of India to issue a regret notice for their rave review of Sharanya's 3 hr concert witnessed by over 700people for over 3.5hrs in Bombay (2005)
Best Regards,
Kumar:)

borat · Post by **borat** » 21 May 2007, 08:08

i think it is interesting how there aren't any other views from parents and the kids who participated.......

pssridhar · Post by **pssridhar** » 21 May 2007, 22:47

Facto wrote:Insider feedback - cleveland inaugural concert - a casual chat with several parents disclosed the following facts - the kids learnt through skype with no face to face lessons. Later AS Murali was sent to east cost to teach some kids and did a good job. Suguna Purushottamam was sent to take care of kids in west and midwest. Thiagarajan Ramani was asked to take care of flute. The feedback from the assigned kids is that these two spent all the time trying to make money by taking private lessons for other students and did not train the inaugural concert participants. Jaylakshmi sekhar thought the veena participant. Sudhindran - Srimusham Raja Rao's student spent 15 days each with the two mrudangam kids and thought them. No one was sent to train the violin students and there was absolutely no training given for violin what so ever. It was advertised that TN Krishnan would teach, but not a single class was given. Students in the midwest like St Louis, Texas, Alabama were feeling hopeless and lost as there was absolutely no training provided by Suguna Purushottamam and Thiagarajan Ramani. The results were obvious at the inaugural concert and only students who were trained by AS Murali got a chance to exhibit their individual manodharma talent. The same students were given multiple opportunities and favoritism's for either hosting artists or being core volenteers for the aradhana committee even though their kids did not deserve to be at the lime light multiple times like Sharanya sivakumar, Lathika Sridhar, Vibav Mouli.

The gentleman, who has come up with these comments, has demeaned the massive efforts put forward by the kids involved, their parents, the three vidwans who came from India to prepare the kids for the concert, the music scholars and some extremely well known artistes in Carnatic music (one of whom gave his blessings to the effort inspite of being very ill and I believe, temporarily disabled), Shri VVS and the entire Aradhana organization by casting these aspersions.

This whole thread was brought to my notice just recently. At first I was tempted to take the high road and let the comments of some possibly disgruntled person, passing himself off as a rasika, slide without a response. But, I think that something has to be done about it as these comments spread like a disease giving a totally false impression of the entire experience.

The concept for such a concert, with international tutelage from renowned artistes using technology (which was the concept to begin with and was advertised as such) and a massive coordination effort, started almost a year ago. A few other great performers in Carnatic who were busy elsewhere during the Music season indicated their interest to particpate in following years, in this mode of instruction, as time permitted. Invitations were sent for students of music to join if they wished to, with audition tapes. The final group was selected and the training sessions began in the Fall of 2006.

There were hours of practice every weekend, over Skype, with a famous artiste teaching the intricacies of each song that he/she was handling. These artistes would not have given their time and energy and their blessing to this event if it could be summarily dismissed, the way you have done.

The sheer challenge of coordination over multiple time periods and the overcoming of technical glitches were matched only by the eagerness of the students and the Carnatic luminaries to participate in this program and make it a success.

And during the ramp up to the actual performance, three vidwans (Shri AS Murali, Thiagarajan Sir, Shrimati Suguna Purushottaman) came from India to train the kids. It happened first over weeks, separately in the three geographic regions, and then the final bringing together of the three regional groups at Cleveland in the hours before the concert. I have personally witnessed the hours of practice and the effort they put in with the groups.

The effort in making sure the technology worked and then ferrying the students around and bringing them together for practice weekends in the snow and the long hours of practice that they had (each session of in-person group practice ran about 8 hours or so) with the vidwan are known only to the people actually there.

You might have surmised by now that I am the father of Latika Sridhar, who you imply got extra limelight by hosting one of the Vidwans and being in the core group. I was not in any 'core' group, nor did I host any Vidwan. Our family was just like any of the other families, all eager to do their best, but none of them getting any undeservedly extra mileage out of it. All the kids did a wonderful job and it is you who imply that some of them did not shine.

I hope I have satisfied any issue with the program you might have had in your mind. If you have any further questions please get back to me at psridhar_23@yahoo.com. I would be glad to work with you in dispelling any doubts you might have. As with anything successful, there will be someone who is upset for some reason or other. With so many people from Carnatic stars to the students to us, the unaccomplished parents, feeling so positive about it and putting in their effort, the program aims to be a continuing success, with further developments, and we want everybody to feel positive about it. My suggestion is that you get on the positive side, participate in it, and gain from it.

murukavi · Post by **murukavi** » 22 May 2007, 04:11

Wonder why parties (kids, parents et. al.) who, presumably, were treated unfairly are not sounding their thoughts.., may be they left it all to their friends and neighbours to handle.....

In any case, there seem to be some important lessons here for aspiring parents (never mind whether the kid aspires or not) from the postings of two parents:

1. If allegations are levelled against you or your points of view in public forums like these, don't answer them directly, just paint a positive picture (describe the hard work, sincerity etc. etc.) and make sure you give your IDs to make your points of view sound genuine and true.

2. Where there is even a remotest possibility, blow your own trumpet (like for ex. about unrelated TOI reference in Sri. Kumar's posting) or advertise your child/ward's capabilities even if it is unrelated to the subject that is getting discussed.

3. If you know any outside agency media (like newspaper, TV etc.), know them sufficiently well so that they will not only publish your ward's performance but also publish regret notices or recall the previously published article, just in case that is necessary.....

wow.... quite a bit of useful (albeit non-musical) stuff coming out of this forum ....

pssridhar · Post by **pssridhar** » 22 May 2007, 05:37

The effort is described to drive home the complexity of the project. Everyone will agree that there will be a few issues in any project of this magnitude, specially something that is being tried out for the first time. The issues that arise are mostly unintenional and allegations of favoritism and such only tend to increase negative feelings.

One's son or daughter will not start aspiring out of the blue. Parents along with teachers have to do a lot of work to get them to a point where they can be on their own, specially for the really young.

This whole thread was begun with non-musical postings. I am not against this conversation as such. On reading thru all the postings in this blogs, I find there are quite a few sensible people willing to view things in the right perspective.

As you point out, it might be useful for the persons actually affected to come forth, rather than stay behind casual conversations where 'information' is dropped and gleaned without having to take responsibility for it.

dkumar · Post by **dkumar** » 22 May 2007, 18:00

My kid particpated in the inagural concert and I am very proud to say that this is one of the best experience she will carry for her life. All the kids did a wonderful job. The warmth of the audience's reception with a standing ovation at the end proved the great success of the concert.

Insane people like "Facto" can try so hard to destroy this achievement by writing these harsh words towards some of the children. It is onething to display your opinion if you are disappointed in any way. But it is absolutely unacceptable to put the innocent children's name in a negative comment.

Nothing can take away what we have acheived as a team. My sincere thanks to all of you who were involved in making this extraordinary concert experience possible.