March CCC Sunday 2025

Namaskaram Everyone,

We would like to thank all those who attended our March CCC event this past Sunday. Listening to peer performances really has a huge impact on students' progress so kudos to all those who made time to attend and listen to our performers. We had the pleasure of hosting one new vocalist, Laya, as well as several students who are continuing to participate in CCC despite their busy schedules as high school seniors: Anirudh, Prahlad, and Advaith . 

We featured an exciting lineup of performances, beginning with a captivating  kriti in the intro slot, Ganapatiye in Kharaharapriya and ending with a beautiful composition Tulasi Bilva in Kedaragowlai. We had the opportunity to listen to various Thygaraja krithis throughout the entire event such as Naama Kusmamula, Lalite Shri Pravriddhe, Nannu Brova Nee, Paramathmudu Veligi, and our final performance of Tulasi Bilva. As we had a variety of lovely Thyagaraja kritis in the lineup as well as it being just a few weeks after celebrating the Thyagaraja Aradhana, we decided to ask Thyagaraja Trivia during our fillers! 

The violinists and mridangists as a whole did a great job in embellishing the performances. We enjoyed the various alapanais that highlighted the ragams beautifully and thanis with unique abhiprayams and korvais we heard throughout the event.

We were also blessed to have Vijayakrishnan Uncle from Doordarshan (Chennai) as a special guest at this month’s event. We all mirror his feelings about Padma aunty and Mohan uncle’s dedication and contributions to giving this welcoming platform to all these young talents.

In our announcements, we shared our personal experiences growing up in CCC and how it has shaped us as musicians and individuals. We expressed gratitude to Padma aunty, Mohan uncle, the gurus, audio team, volunteers, and the CCC community for their dedication and support. Without any one of these key pieces, CCC would not be what it is today! Additionally we would like to thank all the Gurus, especially Kasthuri Aunty, Hari Uncle, Gopi Uncle, Snigdha Aunty, Srinath Uncle, Sandhya Aunty, Savita Aunty, Mahesh Uncle, Saravanapriyan Uncle, Anu Aunty, and Misha aunty for blessing this month’s performers with their presence.

A special mention was given to Carnatic Chronicles for their role in keeping the community connected, along with an announcement that they are now accepting advertisements. We also shared the winners of the Carnatic Connections game (see photo) and hearty congratulations to them all. 

There is also a new addition to the CCC PowerPoint, that we hoped everyone noticed. There is an extra slide dedicated to each song, with more information on the song’s meaning, which is very important to know when both singing and listening. Many thanks to the PowerPoint team lead & Youth volunteers. 

While we have both performed at CCC several times, this was our first time Emceeing, and I think we can both agree that it was truly an immersive experience. A special thanks to Chinmai for training us to emcee this event! We had so much fun coming up with filler content and bonding with Padma Aunty and Latha aunty backstage. We also opened up a little about our experience in college so far and how high school seniors shouldn’t stress and anguish over their decisions, as college is just one step in life. We have a lot more to climb and we promise it’ll all work out in the end!

Our next event will be held at San Jose High School on April 13th, 2025 from 2 pm to 5 pm. Please join us in supporting the performers next month, and looking forward to seeing you all there!

Warm wishes,

Sahana Gopalan & Umesh Gopi (March CCC emcees)

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