We, at Richmond Rasikas, wish to thank the many participants, both children and adults, who made our Thyagaraja Aradhana (8th annual celebrations) such a dashing success on May 1st, 2010. This years event was well supported by performers in and around town as well as from neighboring townships. Some of our performing guests came from D.C metro area, Charlottesville and Raleigh.
This year’s Thyagaraja Aradhana started off, as planned, with a group rendition of the Pancharatna Krithis followed by the Utsava Sampradhaya Krithis. This was followed by a day-long session of individual and group renditions of many more beautiful compositions. The day was devoted mostly to Thyagaraja kritis. A whole crew of percussionists supported the event, on the mridangam, ghatam and kanjira.
With around 80 plus participants pouring in with family and friends, including parents of a few visiting from India, the Twin Hickory community hall reminded many of a small Indian wedding in progress.
It was heartwarming to see so many young children from our own communities taking their first steps in the long and culture-rich journey of learning Carnatic music. We wish to convey a very special ‘thank you’ to all these children for coming forward to showcase their talents at our Aradhana. Also worth mentioning, was the increasing trend in adult participation for performance and the number of first time performers who took to the stage with comfort.
While the weather made it feel at par with the heat of Thiruvaiyaaru (the saint's village in Tamilnadu), our food vendor matched it up with a wonderful display of traditional items in line with the theme of the event.
To sum it up, this was yet another event in North America that reinforced the wealth of the carnatic classical system of music, using the compositions of the bard saint Sri. Thyagaraja. One downside was that as the event progressed the timeline was surely and steadily slipping. We will make every effort to make improvements on this issue.
We hope to see you all again at our ‘Great Composers Day’ event this Fall when we will be celebrating, as the name suggests, all the other great composers of carnatic music. Stay tuned to this website for the announcements related to this event.
Richmond Rasikas.
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