June 8th CCC Sunday 2025

Namaskaram Everyone,
We’d like to thank all of you who joined us for our June CCC event this past Sunday! From the debut performers to our graduating seniors, last Sunday’s event was filled with fantastic musical and instrumental performances and laughter thanks to our Father’s Day-themed dad jokes (we hope at least some of them hit!). With summer officially in swing and many students graduating, we’re grateful to the students, families, and gurus who made time to support our performers.

We had the pleasure of welcoming several debut performers, including Gowri, Arya, Venkateshwar, and Shravan, in their first solo performances. We also featured many repeat performers and some graduating seniors who are continuing to be part of CCC even as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives.

The event began with divine bhajan renditions in our inclusive segment, by Ishko Gopinath and Sudarsan Kannan. We are grateful to all of you for giving them a warm reception to their rendering which literally made their day! We thank Smt Vidya for training them and for helping coordinate their performance in CCC. We then continued with a fast-paced rendition of Era Napai in ragam Thodi and a cheerful Bantureeti Kolu in Hamsanadam, which brought tremendous energy to the stage. It was Todi day as we had two other explorations of Thodi: Koluvamare gada and Aragimpave. We were lucky to also hear 2 songs, Gowrimanohara and Guruleka Etuvanti, in the ragam Gowrimanohari. Finally, we heard a grand Manamuleda in Hamir Kalyani, Marivere Gati in Anandabhairavi, and Satileni Guruguha in Purvikalyani. The performers showcased their creativity through alapanai, crisp sangatis, and dynamic swarams that revealed a strong command of melody and rhythm.

Hearing Guruleka Etuvanti was an apt reminder of the indispensability of the gurus in our lives, especially ahead of Guru Purnima next month. We’d like to thank the gurus who blessed this month’s event with their presence and support, especially Hari Uncle, Gopi Uncle, Kasthuri Aunty, Srinath uncle, Sandhya aunty, Srikanth uncle, Savita aunty, Akila aunty, Mahesh uncle and Saravanapriyan uncle. Your ‘bales’ and ‘sabhashes’ from the audience and encouragement are invaluable to every student. And a HUGE shoutout to Vardhinee Prakash, our very own CCC alumna who had her student (Gowri) perform at CCC for the first time.

A special congratulations to the Carnatic Chronicles team for bringing out the talents of many of our CCC youth through their quarterly publications. Congratulations to the Wordle Challenge winners from the previous edition, and thank you to the youth writers, artists, and editors who keep our community connected in creative ways! If you haven’t yet checked it out, feel free to read it on our website 

CCC has shaped all of us as both musicians and people. It has inspired us to come out of our comfort zones as performers and members of this community. From the Carnatic Chronicles team, youth leaders of organizations like YSTCA, performers and emcees, we all owe our musical growth and confidence to CCC. A huge thank you to Padma Aunty, Mohan Uncle, and all the volunteers and gurus who make this platform possible.

A special shoutout to YSTCA, which is hosting its 13th annual fundraiser, Trayodaseva, on Saturday, September 13th, from 9 AM to 7 PM at the Dominican Sisters of San Jose in Fremont. This year, they’re raising funds for our own Carnatic Chamber Concerts (CCC) and if you'd like to support, please visit ystca.org to learn more!

And to all our seniors, Class of 2025, congratulations! We are excited to celebrate you more formally at the Senior Special CCC on June 22nd at San Jose High School. Please don’t miss it!

Additionally, we are introducing a new system to track attendance, conceptualized by Nami uncle, so please get your attendance ID cards at the next event if you missed picking up your card this month. Please continue reporting in the old method also for the next couple of months until everyone gets their attendance cards and the system glitches are sorted out. Report to the attendance desk and our volunteers will guide you through. 

Finally, thank you to our incredible audio, photo, video, attendance, and PowerPoint teams, especially the youth volunteers who added informational slides about each composition. It’s these small additions that elevate the CCC experience for everyone.

As your June emcees, we had a blast being emcees for this CCC and working together on writing our script—laughing, learning, and most importantly, celebrating the music that we love. We’d highly recommend being an emcee to current and future alumni. Being away from home this past year in college, the importance of CCC, our gurus, and this entire community cannot be overstated. Growing up, we always looked forward to Padma aunty’s comments after our performances, and we’re grateful to both Padma Aunty and Chinmai Raman for the opportunity to fill such an important position and for training us. 

Happy Birthday to all the June CCC babies, and thank you again to all the families, performers, and supporters who joined us!

We hope to see you all at the next CCC event, our senior special, on June 22nd, 2025 at San Jose High School.

Photos (courtesy of Ramyaa Narayanan, Saanvi Reddy, Rangaprabhu Parthasarathy, Barath Rangaswamy and slides arrangement by Sreelaasya) and Video (recording/editing/uploading courtesy of Sathya Ganesan) from the event can all be accessed from our website and feel free to check them out.

With gratitude,

Manya & Shreyas (on behalf of Padma aunty)

(June 2025 CCC Emcees)