June (extra) CCC event!

Dear all,

Please see the summary as written by Sashwat below, along with pictures and video from the event (thanks to our core team volunteers Vidya Raj and Nithya Ashok). You'll also see pictures from our post-CCC GRAD PARTY (organized by the parents of GRADs), hope you enjoy them all.

Regards,

Padma

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Namaskaram everyone,

This Sunday, CCC hosted its (second event for this month) Graduate special event at San Jose High School. The event featured six performances by our graduating seniors: Sahana Gopalan, Aditi Anand, Kaashyap Balaji, Sanika Pande, Vaibhav Prakash, and Sumanth Mahalingam. They were accompanied by their fellow graduating seniors Anagha Ayyagari, Sanjay Chandrasekar, Akshay Suresh, Aaroh Rag, Umesh Gopi, as well as returning alumni Pramati, Aishwarya, Pranav, Ranjana, Apurvaa, and Avinash. Fitting with the theme of graduated, mature talents, everyone gave professional, compelling performances that kept the audience engaged. 

Our talents provided us with a rich ensemble of pieces, consisting of a beautiful main piece and many exciting RTPs. We started off with two RTPs — a comprehensive, well-put together Shanmugapriya pallavi sung by Sahana Gopalan, followed by an energetic and rhythmically intricate pallavi in Varamu by Aditi Anand. Next was a main song performance by Kaashyap Balaji, where the song Dharmasamvardhani in ragam Madhyamavathi was taken up with full grandeur. The final three RTPs each had their own unique element to them — beginning with an explorative dwi-raga pallavi in contrasting ragams Kharaharapriya and Varali rendered by Sanika Pande on the veena, continuing with a carefully-handled pallavi in difficult raga Manirangu executed by Vaibhav Prakash, and ending with a Lord Shiva-themed pallavi in tukkuDA-prevalent raga mAND presented by Sumanth Mahalingam. Every one of these performances were ably, energetically, and creatively accompanied by our violinists/mridangists, and it was a treat to witness the energy of all the talents onstage.

We would like to extend our appreciation to all the Gurus who trained and guided these talents for the performances today, and we also thank the Gurus who were able to attend the event in-person despite their busy schedules. We would also like to extend a special thanks to Vid. Sri. Raghavendra Rao Sir, who was able to attend the entire event for the first time and provide words of encouragement and appreciation for our CCC talents, Gurus, and community.

 

We are grateful to all the resident gurus for their support and special thanks to Sri Hari D.,  Sri Gopi L., Sri Ravindrabharathy S., Smt Kasthuri S., Smt Snigdha V., Smt Anuradha S., Smt Hamsa R., Smt Rama T., Smt Sandhya S., and Sri Srinath Bala for their gracious presence and words of encouragement to our performers. Our Alumni Hrishikesh was also there as a show of support to NadaNidhi performer Sanika and others. It surely made a difference that you were all there, thank you. 

We would also like to thank the CCC volunteers in audio, video, PowerPoint, photography, attendance, membership and social media, etc. and the parents of our GRADs, who were able to make this event and the grad-party after, a resounding success. Every seamless performance was made possible by their countless efforts, and they helped make this event as special as it was for our graduating seniors. We’d also like to thank Padma Aunty, who provided us with the opportunity to emcee this event. Thank you so much for your guidance and support throughout the entire process; we both learned a lot from this opportunity and look forward to continuing supporting CCC as alumni in the future.

This year, we have 32 graduating seniors going off to college. We are really glad to see them take the next step in their journeys, and wish them all the very best of luck!

Our next CCC event will be on July 14th at our usual Shirdi Sai Parivaar venue but at 3:30 PM instead of the regular 2 PM. We thank everyone for their continued support of CCC, and hope to see you all at the next event!

Thank you,
Sashwat Mahalingam and Ananya Devanath