Blessed to perform for Shivarathiri 2014 at Bandikavanoor Temple

It was a indeed a good late evening drive to this wonderful Village where i had an opportunity to perform in this 300 year old Shiva Vishnu Temple with my Mamoos Embar Kannan ji, Sumesh Narayanan ji and Hariharasubramanian ji!

As there was no feedback monitor and we had initially little problem to play in coordination as we had to listen to the sound which was coming from the speakers meant for outside which means we had latency problem! We did get settled after the first song and then it was a nice journey into the concert.

If possible please listen to the tracks in the downloadable link in

http://www.4shared.com/folder/_YAihqYY/2014-Bandikavanoor-ShivaVishnu.html

and forward your opinion /comments

A Great beginning for February!

Great Joy and a Sense of Greater Responsibility was what came in when i received the prestigious IOB Youth Achievement Award today from the hands of Mr. Narendra, CMD IOB today, 10th February, 2014 - being their 78th Foundation Day!

Great Honour and blessing to receive same and be in the corner of the stage with Doyens (in the photo from left to right) namely Sri. Murari IAS rtd., Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Sri. Sankar - CMD Sanmar Group, Sri. Veeramani - CMD, Gem Granites, Sri. Narayanaswamy - Senior Auditor, Dr. Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti and Sri. Munirathnam - Chairman RKM Engineering College. Sri. Narendra, CMD IOB and Executive Directors IOB are also in the photograph above. 

I thank The Almighty for the Grace, my gurus for their blessings and you all, for the well wishes! I understand the responsibility and continue to work harder to achieve a percentage or two of what these Great personalities have achieved, in my life time!

Wonderful Start to 2014 with Activity filled January!

It has been a great New Year 2014 for what with an opportunity  had to perform with this year's Sangeetha Kalanidhi Smt. Sudha Raghunathan ji's Cofee Table Book release function along with Sri. Rajhesh Vaidhya, (had played few pieces in the album given along with the book) Concert with mammos Embar Kannan ji in CrossRoads at the Army Southern Head Quarters, Chennai, opportunity to perform in Thiruvaiyaru, Good article in Dinakaran and Dinamalar in the early part of a New Year, my concert on webcast on www.paalam.in/tv opportunity to perform in one of the oldest forums of Kakinada and an experience of going by electric train and PTC now Chennai Transpot Corporation!

A great beginning on my completion of 19 years of age, Thanks to my friend Sangeetha to have come home today evening to celebrate my Birthday in advance as i am traveling to Salem for a concert with Rajesh Vaidhya anna!

With all your wishes and blessings look forward to a fascinating Year ahead! 

Wishing every one A Very Happy New Year!

I take this opportunity to Thank every one, The Almighty for having given us all an excellent 2013 and look forward to The Almighty showering the bet and more in the years to come from 2014!

Very Happy New Year and my humble gift to all of you is the links for the public concerts i performed in December 2013, thanks to my dear appa for these wonderful uploads!

December 03, 2013 - BGS - http://www.4shared.com/folder/Zhy3NdLR/2013_BGS-concert-dec0313.html

December 10, 2013 - MFAC - http://www.4shared.com/folder/_7xJMlgR/2013_MFAC-1012-KVS-TVB-GHS.html

December 17, 2013 - RR Sabha - http://www.4shared.com/folder/3ZgDsHeg/2013_RR-Sabha_NB-TS-KS.html

December 22, 2013 - Perambur Iyayappa Bkatha Samajam - http://www.4shared.com/folder/6-PHoLff/2013_PeramburIyyappaBakthaSama.html 

December 25, 2013 - Sri Ramka Bahaktha Sajama, K. K. Nagar - http://www.4shared.com/folder/RSHtJjsk/2013_KKnagar-Ramasamajam-2512_.html

I sincerely hope you all will enjoy this music and pray The Almighty to shower me the knowledge and strength to continue pursuing my learning process and live up to the expectation of all my well wishers!

Great December, 2013

It has been wonderful December with great enhancement by Teams for all the concerts and it was so nice of Mr. Shriananth & family to have brought a new keyboard 'KORG MICROSTATION'. This makes December 2013 indeed Special! 

Each concert had good things happenings with the concert 0n 2nd December was a dear for us as it was SATHYABODHI and we had a review for the concert in Dinamalar for the first time! 

3rd December concert was another first being the inauguration concert for Brahma Gana Sabha and for the first time teamed up with Smt. Padma Shankar, Sri. J. Vaidhyanathan and Sri. KV Gopalakrishnan. 

4th December was another first with Sumesh Narayanan anna joing us in CROSSROADS for the first time. 5th December concert had Smt. Sumana Rao from Boston as it was for a wedding reception concert for her family. 8th December at Coimbatore was one of the first performed with a grand team of 8 musicians. 10th December at MFAC was the first time with Trivandrum Balaji anna in the morning slot! 11th December concert was the first time teaming up with Sai Raghavan anna on Mrudhangam for a private wedding concert for a National party! 

December 14, 2013 was special as i got the Bhavan's Cultural Award from teh hands of Chief Justice of India Sri. Sadhasivam!

While December 16th concert was one in IIT premises, December 17th once again was the first time i was performing for RR Sabha, a renowned forum who this year condeucted this year at Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, PS Higher Secondary School, Mylapore and more happy was that it was in the evening 7pm slot! 

December 17, 2013 is also a Memorable day as this was the day i received my new KORG MICROSTATION! While i wanted to perform with this the same day The Almighty had reserved this to be performed first for a Iyyappa Pooja, just like the first concert i performed with my KORG PRO when i got it from Dr. Ravi Dattatreya way back in November 2004! What a coincidence! Swamiye Saranam Iyyappa! We as family have seen a great cycle of events from that Performance on the 30th Nov'04 and we seek The Almighty's Grace and well wisher's wishes to take on another Bigger Circle from December 22nd, 2013 concert performed being another first concert for Perumbur Iyyappa Baktha Samajam held in the premises of Perumbur Annadhana Samajam!

December 21, 2013 we had our KBS Inculcation members presenting thier talents First Time having Sarvag from USA performing with us!

December 25, 2013 continued with the list of many first and here it was for the first time i was performing at Meenakshi College of Engineeering for Sri Rama Baktha Samajam, K. K. Nagar and again for the first time had London BVB Prof. M. Balachandar performing with us in Chennai!

Indeed many interesting happenings during the whole of 2013 and in particular December month! 

A Grand Start for December 2013 Music Festival!

It was indeed a grand start for my December 2013 Music Festival season with a soul satisfying performance by our Team SATHYABODHI yesterday at Rani Seethai Hall organised by Cause Events. We as Team with Mr. Paul Jacob (Bass Guitar), Mr. Donan Murray (Lead Guitar),  Sri. Karaikal Venkatasubramanian (Silent Violin), Sri. Kumbakonam Swaminathan (Mrudhangam), Mr. Elavendhan (Drummer) and my dear appa Sri. Krishnababu (Timing)  had Masth time on stage with all our eye contacts and stage conversations were working great! Thanks to Mr. Vinay who had assisted us on the sounds and the organisers, we feel need to concentrate on this aspect a little more!

We presented 9 items as per following details and hope to have some videos uploaded soon!

1. Innisai Edhal - based on Keeravai 

2. Amaidhiyin aAkkam - based on Jog 

3. Orumiththa Osai - Irish piece based on Sankarabaranam

4. Thedi Unai Charan Adaindhen - SindhuBhairavi - Bharthiar krithi composed by Sathya

5. Narayana - Sudha Dhanyasi 

6. NiravathySukatha - Ravichandrika

7. Ennathin Yetram - based onSubapanthuvarali

8. Vaishnava JanaTo 

9. Ullasa Oonjal - Based on Karaharapriya

Looking forward to all your wishes and blessings in the future concert of our Team!

Exciting December Music Season 2013 ahead!

It was indeed one of the most interesting November month i have had all these years with Two Maiden trips to London and Singapore and my first album, maiden attempt of being a Music composer in Bharatiar Songs released in a Grand Function by Lifco along with their 29 other albums!

I am also happy to see many of our energetic, enthusiastic members of KBSI slowly shaping up to be good learners having keen interest and absorbing the lessons with Hard work and practice. 

I am pleased to share the Joy of performing in this year's December Music Festival, 2013 as per following schedule and request you to be there to bless and encourage our team with your presence during the concerts, when ever and wherever you can! Kindly forward this schedule to all your near & dear and encourage our team.

December 02 - Monday - SATHYABODHI Venue - Rani Seethai Hall, Mount Road, Chennai. Time 7 pm

December 03 - Tuesday for Brahma Gana Sabha Venue - Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium, Luz Church Road, Mylapore. Time 7 pm

December 04 - Wednesday CROSSROADS Venue - Rani Seethai Hall, Mount Road, Chennai. Time 7 pm

December 10 - Tuesday for Mylapore Fine Arts, Oliver Road, Mylapore. Time 930 pm

December 17 - Tuesday for RR Sabha Venue - Dakshinamurthy Auditorium, PS Higher Secondary School, Mylapore. Time 7pm 

December 22 - Sunday for Perumbur Annadhana Samajam Venue 3 Meenakshi Street, behind Lord Iyappa Temple, Perumbur Time: 6pm

December 25 - Wednesday for Rama Bhaktha Samajam, K.K. Nagar Venue - Meenakshi College of Eng. K.K. Nagar Time 5pm

January'14 05- Sunday for Panchamuka Anjaneyar temple, Venue Kalayana Mandapam near Perumal Koil Thepakulam, Mylapore Time 530pm

January'14 06- Monday for Bharathiya Vidhya Bhavan Venue - BVB, Mylapore, Chennai Time - 5pm

While many of the concerts are free programs, few might have entry fee. Please let us know in advance and we can make the passes available for the concerts, if you want us to get the same. Apart from these i also have few private concerts, AIR recording and working on another Album and mostly importantly have my COLLEGE as well!

I Need all your wishes and blessings for this busy December month starting today and i pray The Almighty to give me strength to take it forward!

Long Memorable Day in London for November 2013 visit

The day started around 8am in the morning as we had to travel around 120 miles to Birmingham for the concert at Sri Venkateswara Temple with Dr. Achuthan on violin and Sri. Bhavani Sankar on Mrudhangam. An enjoyable happening was that there was a traffic diversiona nd the GPRS in the vehicle took us round and round for some 15 mts and later we decided to follow the divert sign boards and reached our place from inside Swindon centre town in 10 mts!This brought us the memory of Vivek and Vijay going on bike in Chennai and after all traffic diversion they would reach Andra border! Well this was indeed reverse but still thought of sharing!  

It was almost 5-7 all through this day and we actually packed up our jerkins inside and so travelled few places without it and enjoyed the chillness, very hard or never to experience in Chennai for sure!

After this concert we had a god dharshan of Lord Venkateswara and proceeded to Swindon for the next concert. Left at 530 and reached Swindon at 650pm (after the 30 mts thamasa!) 90 miles in almost 1 hour! We had the concert at the New College Swindon Tamil Sangam for their Deepavali festivity. Thanks sincerely to Sri. Thyagarajan, brother of prof. Swaminathan our main sponsor and also to Balu Raguram anna who also insisted to have our concert after our performance on 03 November, 2013!  We had a great respeonce from teh audience including the Mayor who had been there for the celebrations!

We left around 1030 and the clock in the GPRS showed that we would reach our destination by 0003 and yes we did reach a minute early by 0002! It is indeed amazing the way GPRS works here when the roads are not diverted!

Hoping for a clear day today and planned to go to a theatre to watch LION KING and shall share the experience later in the day or after my return!

VISIT TO LORDS - The Cricket Ground and BAPS Swaminarayanan Temple 08.11.2013

It was  dream trip to Lords the Mecca of Cricket and we had a entire tour outside the ground as we were unable to enter the stadium due to maintenance. Thank teh Almighty we had clear weather and had wonderful time in this visit with Puring rain as soon as we got into the car on our drive back home!

We had the opportunity to visit BAPS Swaminarayan Temple, thanks to Prof. Swaminathan and had a good Lunch at the restaurant run by the Temple! Here are the photos which discribes our day November 08, 2013 in London!

Lords Visit 8th November 2013

The Leisure days in London! 6th and 7th November, 2013

After couple of interesting sight seeing days, we decided to stay at home to have some excellent food which made us feel home away from Home! Also we had a good session of playing Shuttle and also visited Mrs Subramaniam, another regular to India for Music Seasons and a very Knowledgeable rasika! It was a nice to have performed, kind of a chamber concert with great interest shown by her to understand the way the nuances are produced on the keyboard! 

Today i had great time watching some of teh good mvies which were in the hard disk of out Host's TV and also great time listening to KBSI Members performing at Chrompet, Chennai. Well it was indeed a nice and kudos to our members for a fabulous performance! Kalakitanga unmyil!

Day 2 of our trip in London!

November 05, 2013 Our Tour around London today

This day we sincerely have to thank Mr. Balachandar, Mrudhangam artiste from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London as he was a great Human and also showed us all the best possible for the day including teh National Museum, Science Museum, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, China Town and many more apart from the great luch and the evening Noodles he got us! The highlight was the wonderful Soup he made for us at a restaurant with just 3 glasses of Hot water with ready made soup powder! Delicious and outstanding indeed! 

Day 1 Sight seeing Experience in London!

After a good concert on the 3rd November, decided to venure out for sight seeing tour on the 4th! Thnaks to our host Mr. Swaminathan who got us Day Pass to travel in Train and bus and also a sightseeing our pass valid for 2 days with a bonus of River Cruise! Here is the link of the photos of our experience!

November 04, 2013 Uk Visit - Part 2

We were fortunate that we were in time for the Change of Guard at the Palace! Yes i believe it happens only on even dates and also only if he weather is good (not wet)! The first good act of Weather God! Later we went to many other sight seeing spots and decided to take the free River Cruise from London Bridge! We had our sandwiches packed up by our host and then went on it followed by the ride on London Eye! What an experience!

After this we went near the Big Ben o look at a close proximity and were so lucky to hear that Ringing Bell! What a Fabulous Sound! After this we met our host and returned back home sweet home and had a wonderful dinner before going to bed! 

Maiden Concert in London 03 November 2013!

I woke up on 3rd November, with a great feeling of going to present my maiden concert in UK and was feeling great! After the Lunch we proceeded for the concert venue little early to ensure sound check to be done and a cooperative Mr. Prabha on the PA was indeed fabulous! 

November 3, 2013 Maiden Concert in London

Here are the photos and video links of my Maiden concert in London Winston Churchill Hall enhanced by Sri. Balu Raguraman on Violin and Sri. M. Balachandar on Mrudhangam. Excellent support by the PA person Sri. Prabha and the Lights director Mr. Andrews as well! A decent turn out in spite of the fact that there were few more programs as well going on in London and the audience gave a great reception to this concert. The Chairman of Orupaanai appreciated and also rewarded me with a cash gift! I was so moved that we as a team could win the hearts of this lovely audience!

Dr. Ambikapathy a regular visitor to December Music Festival was all praise for the elaborate Chadrajothi aalapana Tyagaraja krithi Bagayanaiya, ragamalika kalpanaswarams and an excellent Thani by Mr. M. Balachandar on Mrudhangam!

Reporting from LONDON!

What a turn around of Weather from Chennai to London! Yes enjoying every minute indeed! Landed on the 1st November, 2013 with a surprising Fireworks welcome seen from the Sky, may be for Deepavali and on touch down could feel the change of weather!

We reached indeed our Home away from Home at Mr/s Swaminathan's residence where we had his son Sri. Suresh, daughter in law Smt. Abirami Suresh and also their daughter Ms. Sashwathi welcoming us and had a great dinner as well! Got ourselves accustomed to the local condition on the 2nd with a long walk looking at the city/town of Radlett visiting the Railway station, Jewish Synagogue shopping malls etc. Thanks to Suresh anna for having taken us on this walking tour as well as to his old 400 year old Aldenham School! Here is the link for the first photos!

November 4, 2013, UK visit - pat1

1000th appearance - Yellam Iraivan Seyal!

Thanks Almighty for the Grace and taking us to this 1000th appearance! Pranams to my Gurus, in particular my maternal thatha Sangeetha Bhushanam Sri. Embar S. Sadagopan and most importantly my parents! Thanks to every one who have been with us through this journey and to be with us further more as well!

I strongly believe in my parents concept that it is indeed a Team effort and i sincerely Salute all my well wishers for the support, encouragement, confidence they have been giving me and request every one to continue showering their wishes and blessings! 

I sincerely understand that this is just a beginning and what we need to achieve is grater than we think and i shall put in my best efforts to accomplish same with the Grace of The Almighty!

I look forward to seeing you for the concert i will be performing for MUDRA at Infosys Hall, RKM School premises, Bazullah Road, T. Nagar from 630pm on teh 27th October, 2013 where i will be teaming up with Sri. Karaikal Venkatasubramaniam, Sri. Kumbakonam Swaminathan and Sri. Hariharasubramaniam. 

Thanks 999 forums / Individuals!

I am so glad and thankful to all the forums / Individuals who had extended opportunities to me and my dear instrument to have made us come to 999 performances and this was at the Forum Vijaya Mal, Vadapalani organised by RMKV. 

It was so nice of Mr. Thyagarajan, A senior Official and from Owner's family was there to receive us and also requested us to perform few popular krithis which i believe was a great recognition for our efforts, all these days! It was amidst a good number of audience and also a huge moving crowd in the Mal being a Saturday. 

Our team with SP Ananthapadmanabha anna on violin, Sankarnarayanan anna on mrudhangam and Pradeep uncle on Tabla enjoyed the performance as i am sure the audience did! We did not have a Monitor speaker but otherwise there was not much to complain about! Enjoyed the dinner after this concert looking forward to the next one on 6th October, 2013 being our 1000th! 

Pranams to my first Guru, Mentor and my dear Thatha!

Sangeetha Bhushanam Sri. Embar S. SAdagopan avl.

I sincerely thank all my gurus, well wishers, Organisers, enhancing artists, PA support team, Media and importantly my Parents as i step in closer to the stage on the 6th October, 2013 at Music Academy organised by Arun Excelo which happens to be the 1000th concert! 

When i look back i remember troubling my paternal patti to switch on the TV and to have Vijay Channel in it as it would telecast Sriman Narayana, Dollayam and Pony Mother's song Malarpola Malargindra as early at 530am! Also my patti used to sing many kutti pattukal as well!

My memory rolls back to the days when i used to go to my maternal grand parent's house where Music was The Thing with my thatha and mama always busy with music! I remember my thatha taking me to concerts and also talking to me about music, music and music related talks only like saying me the names of ragas, their arohanam & avarohanam, sample krithis etc. Probably this lead me deep in to the direction of taking up Music into me in a Big way and i salute him and all others who have been instrumental in me taking up Music seriously!

He has inspired me to take up Violin and have sincerely been making efforts on same! I have also attempted to perform Harmonium and have been, to an extent successful, placed as a Grade B artiste in AIR! Now i am also trying Accordin as well! 

My thatha has been my first Guru, Mentor and a greatest Well Wisher  and seek his blessings along with that of all my Gurus, well wishers, Organisers, enhancing artists, PA support Team, Media and many more  as i step into 1000 and beyond! I sincerely understand what has been done is just a start and what is to be achieved is YET to START!   

Adyar D. Balasubramani on Nadaswaram, Adyar D. Senthilkumar on Thavil and Sumesh Narayanan on Mrudhangam

Happay Pillayar Chathurthi!

Wishing every one a very Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi!

I am so happy that this year also i have a concert on this wonderful day and i sincerely hope being the first of the Festivals this Chathurthi will bring Peace and Harmony within all of us.

I have many interesting moments to share and will start sharing with you all in detail soon!

Wishing Giri Fine Arts a successful Launch and i am sure they will try and make great platform for upcoming artists like me.  

I am a College Boy Now!

It has been long time i have had the opportunity to sit to write my blog and i feel bad for the same!

Unless you keep writing, it becomes old news and difficult to remember sequence and also looses its values!

Thank the Great Almighty i passed by HSC (+2) exams with 80.8% scoring 60 in Entrepreneurship 73 in Economics, 84 in English, 92 in Accountancy and 95 in Business Studies! Also i am now in DG Vaishanav College  studying BSc. (Vis. Com)! Wow! I could not believe myself on the turn of events in my life in the past two months! Thanks Ma and Pa for the nice scooter!

Yes i have got my Driving and riding Licence as well and now a proud owner of Hero - Maestro Scoter too! I am going to college in that only!

The proud moment in the recent past was the Award instituted in our KBSI Here is the linkfor the photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/112203891348244889498/albums/5891533077657094881

Also the performance with my Mamoos on World Music Day (June 21) at Arkay Convention Centre under Carnatica and Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha! Wow it was so nice feeling and the concert came out well with just two of us only! Here is the link for the video:

I am travelling to Karaikudi for attending a Sadabisekkam to get the blessings of my paternal grand father's sister and will come back and detail more!

Before going let me remind you all that i am on performing on a Harmonium and that is being telecast on July 067, 2013 in Jaya Tv at 630 am, thanks to Ramjhi sir and Jaya Tv Baala Bruhmam!

Good April and a resting May!

It has been long time i logged in to my blog and the reason being i was not keeping good health from April 27! I did have a good April after finishing my last X11 std Board exam on 12th april, 2013 and also had a a great concert in my home ground - Villivakkam Sathguru Sath Sangam on the 20th April, 2013.

April 12-13, 2013 is indeed a important day as we had our KBS Inculcation Evaluation mela which went well with 3 external examiners evaluating the skill / knowledge imparted by us to our members. A report on this appeared in Dinamalar and was indeed a great motivation / recognition. We will be having a function to announce the winner of an Award instituted on my Grandfather memory in the name of "Embar S, Sadagaopan's Award of Excellence" ad wil be held on the 8th or 15th June which i shall confirm soon!

On 27th i developed a slight fever and thought it to be a normal one! H/ever i decided to check with my doctor on 29th and he immediately asked me to do Blood Tests. The tests showed -ve i.e. no problems found and still my fever was coming on and off the entire day. Then went for a two day outing with my Mamoos to Pondy and on the 3rd morning suddenly got a very High Temperature and so decided to leave immediately and straight went to another Doctor. Updated her of all the proceedings i had gone thru' and she asked me to take few more tests which also came back as -ve & the doctor was indeed surprised!

In the mean time as my grand parents were so tensed, approached the doctor we usually get  as final opinion and he in turn asked me to take couple of new tests which also came out as -ve (no problems). Surprised with the results and the prevailing fever on suggestions from both the other doctors decided to take up the course suggested by the first Doctor and I should say i am feeling better from day before yesterday! With no findings of a specific disease have gone through this almost one month with fever and i am still very weak! Hope in the days to come i should become completely fit!

In the midst of this had a back to back concert on 12th May for Issai Mazhalai on Harmonium and my solo on keyboard same evening and thanks to Almighty for having performed it without any trouble! Also had a concert on 15th May and went to Tirumala same night by car to participate in my guru's Instrumental presentation of Pancharathna krithis on Sri Thyagaraja Jayathi celebrations on 16th May morning. With the blessings of my guru and with the Grace of Venkatesa had a miraculous dharshan opportunity as well!

I am also awaiting my results may be tomorrow  26th or 27th May and look forward to getting a seat in Loyola for taking up Vis Com!  Will keep you all updated on my education status by next week!

Ps. The album release of SATHYABODHI has been postpond and will keep you all informed on the date of release soon!