Carnatic Chamber Concerts thanks Vidwan Shri Hari Devanath for his wonderful presentation on structural elements of a composition with a focus on how to distinguish an Anupallavi from a CharaNam in a composition.

Carnatic music compositions are the creations of composers who are great scholars and prolific poets with a command over the language whose songs are immersed in devotion but at the same time have verses with poetic mastery and intricate rhyming word patterns. Shri Hari Devanath in his presentation beautifully explained how to enjoy the lyrical beauty of the compositions along with its musical aspects to get the fullest experience as envisaged by the composers themselves. Shri Hari Devanath delved into an important part of Carnatic compositions, its structure, and how to identify an anupallavi in a composition, which might in general sound like a charaNam. It was a great learning for the CCC children and the audience to know about the rhythmic pattern called Praasam, how the great composers used various types of praasams like prathama akshara, dwitiya akshara, anthim akshara and many more in their compositions, and how observing them could help us to identify anupallavi. Shri Hari Devanath in his own humorous and captivating way explained the different types of praasams by singing several compositions like Bhajare gopalam, Manasa sancharare and examples from Dikshitar kritis, Purandaradasa kritis and Bhadrachala Ramadasa kritis and explained how to compare and contrast the syllables based on praasams and distinguish the anupallavi from charaNam. CCC immensely thanks Shri Hari Devanath for introducing our young musicians to the concept of praasam, giving them valuable knowledge to research further, and enabling them to better understand and enjoy the poetic and emotional intricacy of Carnatic compositions.

Carnatic Chamber Concerts thanks Vidwan Shri Ravindrabharathy Sridharan for his Feature A Guru Series presentation to the CCC children on how to extend longevity in music. While applauding the budding artists for being associated with this divine art, and appreciating the encouraging, thriving eco-system Bay Area's music associations are offering to nurture their talents, Shri Ravindrabharathy Sridharan talked about the very important aspect of how to keep up the flame of passion for music and continue music for lifetime. He gave several valuable insights as to how the children should observe and learn from the great masters' view point, and regularly listen to their guru and guru parampara concerts and be inspired. Shri Ravindrabharathy Sridharan beautifully explained how the Great Masters followed SravaNam, active listening, and Saadhagam, practice in depth. These are the two methods that helped them to master their art as well as enjoy the process such that they continued to be inspired by music all their lives. Their successful performances was only the tip of the iceberg, whereas as their lives were filled with hard work, sacrifice, and humbleness. Shri Ravindrabharathy Sridharan gave several valuable suggestions on how to ensure longevity in music and advised the young talents to actively listen to the great masters' music as a group and analyze their work, discover unique aspects of their music, learn about their lives and journey with music, and practice with focus to push the boundaries to improve more. Shri Ravindrabharathy Sridharan also suggested books on/by the great masters for our children to read this summer and benefit from. Thank you Shri Ravindrabharathy Sridharan for taking your time to put together this wonderful presentation and share your profound and reflective thoughts with the CCC audience.

CCC thanks Vidwan Shri Vivek Sundararaman for his humour-filled presentation on the appreciation of music, "Rasikathvam". As part of the Feature A Guru series, Shri Vivek Sundararaman gave an engaging, informative presentation on the importance of rasikas and rasikathvam in live concerts and how appreciation of music combined with knowledge elevates the experience and gives satisfaction to the listener both as a rasika and as a learner. He kept the audience engrossed with his brilliant puns when detailing how the rasikas, with their unparalleled love for music, express their appreciation, by feeling nostalgic about the same renditions performed by the legendsin the past, identifying ragas and keeping talam along with the musicians. Shri Vivek also insisted to the young music learners the benefits of listening to live concerts (kELvi Gyanam) and how to maximize and take away some key learning with each concert they attend which would make them familiar to ragas, songs and help them to enjoy the process. His presentation was riveting with informative and humorous visuals and audio clippings played to the children to interactively explain them how to slowly build their knowledge and appreciation of music by paying attention to the details of the song, make a connection to the ragas they know and do an emotional mapping as well as observe the musicians' synergy. We immensely thank Shri Vivek Sundararaman for taking his time to prepare this very interesting topic and explaining how to listen to a concert to become a better musician and a rasika. The CCC audience thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and had a lot of learnings to take home.

CCC thanks Vidwan Dr. Saravanapriyan Sriraman for giving a thematic presentation on "How to Approach a Raga", a topic that is broad, deep, and very important for all budding musicians and music lovers to understand. As part of CCC's Feature A Guru Series, Shri Saravanapriyan elegantly explained the vast topic into easily understandable parts by demonstrating with songs, phrases, and a slideshow presentation. He spoke about how each raga is identified by the gamakam associated with its swaras and how the gamakams and kaalapramaNam differentiate the ragas even though some ragas might have the same swaras. He eloquently explained how the gamakams associated with the notes create the mood and characteristics of a raga. Shri Saravanapriyan also briefed about the Trayodasha lakshaNaas of a raga, giving examples of some of its parts and also how to identify the allied ragas. The tips he gave on how to build manodharmam within the rules of a raga and practical methods on how to become proficient in a ragam were priceless to every budding musician. We immensely thank Shri Saravanapriyan, for taking the time to prepare and present this key topic to our members.

Carnatic Chamber Concerts thanks Vidwan Shri Shiv Kumar Bhat for being a part of CCC and for the beautiful presentation he gave for the CCC children about the immensely important and intricate topic, Shruthi. Thank you for explaining the importance of finding the Adhara Shruthi (the reference pitch) and how it helps to bring the best of our voice. Explaining how the shruthi changes with age by showing samples of great musicians work, the tips on how to practice and maintain the voice culture with changing shruti were all enlightening to not just the children but to the parents as well.