Namaskaram everyone,

This past Sunday, in celebration of all CCC gurus and in conjunction with the festival of gurus, Guru Purnima, we concluded our July monthly event. Visiting Vidwan Sri Chennai Thyagarajan was amongst the wonderful gurus in the audience and was able to watch multiple students of his perform, which was perfect for Guru Purnima!

The stage was adorned by a wide array of artists, from debutante performers vocalist Maitri, violinist Lalit, and mridangist Pradhyuun, to graduating senior vocalist Sripradha and vainika Pramithi, to CCC alumni violinist Ranjana and mridangist Pranav who are still pursuing their artforms in college.  The occasion also featured classical ragams and kritis, each performed by CCC students and their mentors in a distinctive way. The krithis were showcased in an engaging range of durations, ranging from dynamic 10-minute segments to a 30-minute RTP showcase. And in honor of Guru Purnima, Prasanna performed her Parama Guru Vidhwan Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan’s composition “anbe aruLe” with her team! We wish our graduating seniors the best of luck in college and a long, musical life ahead.

We sincerely thank all of the gurus who helped and encouraged all of the pupils that performed. Thank you very much for coming in person to the event, Smt. Kasthuri, Sri Hari, Sri Shiv Kumar, Sri Gopi; Smt Akila, Smt Sowmya, your presence really helped the performers, especially since this CCC event was in honor of Guru Purnima. Additionally, we were extremely lucky to have Vidwan Sri Chennai Thyagarajan attend our entire event and bestow blessings upon all of the students and CCC! 

During this CCC, we discussed the importance of staying involved with the music community. Two ways CCC students can get involved are through the Carnatic Chronicles and YSTCA. 

The Carnatic Chronicles is a quarterly publication of CCC and it has a collection of articles, drawings, and other media put together by our very own CCC students. Carnatic Chronicles Summer Edition 2024, which is the 12th edition since CCC started the magazine, is out now, and can be read online at our website. 

In addition, YSTCA, which stands for Youth Service through Cultural Arts, is a team of high schoolers in the CCC music community that hosts events and fundraisers to benefit various causes. Its most recent initiative gives students the opportunity to present music and dance to various senior centers in the Bay Area, of which the first event was hosted last Tuesday. The team is also organizing more events for the local seniors and a daylong fundraiser is being planned for September 21st to benefit a nonprofit called "Grateful Garments". 

It's the summer– the perfect time to contribute to the incredible CCC community, whether it be through submitting an article for the Carnatic Chronicles, or signing up to perform/volunteer/donate at an upcoming YSTCA event.  Kindly consider supporting these efforts.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the incredible volunteers who make CCC possible. Whether it's through video, audio, photography, magazine, slides, or our website, their dedication ensures CCC events run smoothly and remains accessible to all. Since the organization’s birth, we have witnessed their unwavering commitment and tireless efforts. Special thanks to Padma Aunty for giving us the opportunity to emcee this month, and to Chinmai for helping us throughout the process. You make emceeing seem effortless with your support every step of the way.

Our next CCC event will be on August 11th, at Shirdi Sai Parivar from 3:30 pm to 6:30pm. We hope to see you there!

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Photos from the event 

Video from the event 

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Thanks,

Varsha Shankar and Sudiksha Vaidyanathan (July CCC emcees)