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Biographies
Veena
Artists:
SriVani Ganti: SriVani is a rising sophomore at
Northeastern University studying biology. She has been studying Carnatic music
since the tender age of five. For the first four years of her life she took
Carnatic vocal lessons under the instruction of Smt. Tara Anand. Then she decided
shift her Carnatic training from vocal to Veena. It was under the teaching of
Smt. Durga Krishnan that SriVani developed a deep love for Carnatic music and
the Veena. While learning the Veena SriVani preformed in her local temple for
numerous festivals and poojas. Some of the festivals included Thygaraja
Aradhana and Dikshitar Day. Both of these festivals are dedicated to two of the
trinity in Carnatic music. She has also attended Durga Krishnan's music camps,
which are weeklong rigorous camps aimed at teaching all aspects of Carnatic
music. Once her senior year ended, SriVani dedicated all her free time into
preparing for her Arangetram. This was her two and a half hour solo performance
that rose SriVani into the ranks of becoming a professional Veena artist. Not
only did she work incredibly hard towards her Arangetram, but she also gained a
new perspective of the Veena and the power that is found behind it. She
owes a great debt of gratitude to her guru Smt. Durga Krishnan who has spent
endless hours with SriVani imparting music, wisdom and love. Recently SriVani
was blessed by her guru and has begun to give veena lessons to new students.
She uses the same methods as her guru and hopes that her students will gain the
same passion and respect that she has of Carnatic music and Veena. Priya Samudrala:
Priya is also a rising sophomore, and is studying behavioral neuroscience at
Northeastern University. Beginning her Carnatic tutelage at the tender age of
5, she engrossed herself in Carnatic Vocal lessons as well as Indian Classical
Dance, Bharatanatyam, from Guru Tara Bangalore and Guru Sridevi Thirumalai
respectively. She more recently completed her Bharatanatyam Arangetram in 2006
under the expert tutelage of Guru Sunanda Narayanan after training with her for
the last few years. Priya also learnt Indian folk dancing from Guru Jasmine
Shah and participated in several performances and won competitions. Priya has
also trained in classical Western violin for six years and played percussion in
the Wind and Orchestra Ensembles in high school. Priya began her Veena training 7 years ago under the expert guidance
of Guru Durga Krishnan. Since then, she has performed in her local temple for
festivals such as Thygaraja Aradhana and Dikshitar Day and has also attended Durga
Krishnan's music camps. Summer camp training under eminent music and dance
Gurus such as Lalgudi Shri G Jayaraman, GJR Krishnan and Vijayalakshmi, Dwaram
Tyagaraja, Sumathy Kaushal, Rajee Narayan, and Indira Kadambi have enriched
Priya's training and appreciation of these highly evolved art forms. However,
she owes her deepest respects to her Guru Durga Krishnan for helping shape her
love for Carnatic music and Veena. Tabla Artist: Anshul Parulkar: Anshul is a rising
sophomore at Brown University
studying human biology and economics. Anshul Parulkar has been
learning Tabla since he was seven years old, under Sri Mahesh Lachyankar in the
Farukhabad Gharana. Since then, he has prospered under Lachyankar and numerous
other gurus Sri Harshal Tole, (present gurus) Sri Aditya Kalyanpur, and Sri
Nitin Mitta. During his summers, Anshul travels to India and learns Sri Nitin
Mitta’s guruji Pundit Arvind Mulgaonkar. Pandit Arvind Mulgaonkar is one of the
greatest present exponents of the Farukhabad Gharana. He has preserved this
ancient style of playing from his own guruji, founder of the entire Gharana,
the late Ustad Amir Hussein Khan-Saab.
For years, Anshul has demonstrated his excellence in Tabla through a variety of
performances. He has accompanied numerous schools of music in the Massachusetts
such as Raganjali School of Music in Shrewsbury, and has performed extensively
with local maestros in a wide variety of disciplines, including: vocals,
santoor, sitar, kathak, violin, and saxophone. He has played in international
expositions in Canada, and has won numerous first-place awards in school and at
talent shows for his expertise. As a fourteen-year-old, Anshul gave a lecture
demonstration on Tabla and Indian classical music to interested listeners at
the Society for Destitute Women in Ashburnham, MA. More than once, he has had
the chance to expose his talents on screen; when he was thirteen, Anshul was
chosen to accompany a musical mime on television near Worcester. More recently,
he is the lead percussionist in a professional Indian classical music troupe
(Shadj Gandhar), and has given a several concerts with them in various
locations all over New England. He has also had the occasion to play Tabla on
radio stations this past year, and has performed numerous times at the Hatch
Shell in Boston. Anshul has, for the past two years, conducted classes over the
summer for novice Tabla players, and maintains his lessons for students in
college. Last year, in 2006, along with his twin sister Isha, Anshul had his
arangetram. This was a four-hour long concert that exemplified his acceleration
in Tabla; as well as, Isha’s excellence in Bharatanatyam. Anshul has deep
respect for his numerous gurus who have taught him the fine art of the Tabla.
Our Most Respected Gurus
Veena Guru: Durga Krishnan
is a graduate of Carnatic Music College of Madras, India. She holds the degree
“Sangeetha Vidwan” – Scholar of Music and is also a certified teacher of
Carnatic Music. Durga is also one of the primary disciples (student) of the
legendary veena player the late Dr. Chittibabu. She has accompanied him on
several of his CDs and LPs. She is also a composer who has composed, arranged,
directed and played music for several productions such as Sakunthalam,
Ramayanam, Dasavatharam and Festivals of India by the dance teachers in the
local area. Durga Krishnan has been performing solo concerts and also concerts
with other artists in and around Boston and in many other cities in the USA and
Canada. She has given numerous lecture demonstrations on Carnatic music - its'
origin, history and development in several universities including Harvard and
Tufts Universities and Berklee College of Music in Boston. These lecture
demonstrations always include the history of Indian music in general and the
development of Hindustani and Carnatic systems and also the similarities the
Carnatic music has with other systems. Durga Krishnan is a very popular veena and vocal teacher in the
Boston area and is committed to the promotion of the fine arts. She has
arranged several successful concerts and workshops by the most famous artists
from India. Bringing Carnatic Music to the mainstream population in the Boston
area has been her mission for the past few years. She has arranged and also
conducted several teaching workshops aimed exclusively at the students of the
Western Music in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The unique feature of these
workshops is to give Western notation for the Carnatic songs, which makes it
much easier for them to learn the totally unfamiliar songs in less than two
hours. Durga Krishnan also conducts summer music camps at her house that are
attended by her students and also Western professional musicians. Durga
Krishnan also arranges and performs at several charity concerts to raise funds
for various causes including the earthquake that hit Gujarat a few years ago
and more recently for the Tsunami victims of India and Srilanka. At present Durga Krishnan is collaborating with Western classical
violinists and Jazz artists. She has also been performing fusion concerts with
Marc Rossi who is a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he
teaches classical jazz and various music in their World Music Department. All
the pieces that are performed at these concerts are their own compositions. She
has been learning under the guidance of Padmabhushan Sri Lalgudi G. Jayaraman
for the past five years. She teaches both veena and vocal at her house in
Marlborough. She has been on the staff at Learnquest Academy of Music in
Waltham since its beginning 12 years ago and is in charge of developing the
Carnatic Music program there. She recently joined its board of directors team.
Several of her students have won prizes at the Cleveland Thyagaraja festival. Tabla Guru: Nitin Mitta
is one of the prominent young tabla players of his generation. Born in
Hyderabad , in 1975, and brought up there, Nitin first performed solo tabla at
the age of ten. Over the years he has matured into a tabla player of rare
technical virtuosity and sensitivity. He has performed worldwide with some of
India's most celebrated and honored musicians – such as Pt. Jasraj, Dr. Prabha
Atre, Pt. Rajan Sajan Mishra, Pt.Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Smt. Veena Sahasrabudhe
and Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee just to name a few. Nitin's accompaniment – at
once dexterous, supportive and spontaneously inventive - combined with the rich
repertoire that he has inherited from his guru-s, and the inspiration that he
draws from his peers has won him the admiration of music lovers and
connoisseurs at an international level. Nitin received his early training in Hyderabad from Pandit G. Satyanarayana . In his years as a tabla-student, he won many
accolades, including the first prize in the All India Competition held in
Calcutta and completing the diploma in music from the Telugu University,
Hyderabad with Honors. He was also awarded a National Scholarship by the Ministry
of Human Resource Development, Central Govt. His
passion for rhythm and his desire to enhance his repertoire of
tabla-compositions, lead him to seek the guidance ofPandit Arvind Mulgaonkar who lives in Mumbai, and is one of the most
highly respected Tabla-mentors of his generation. Mulgaonkarji familiarized
Nitin with numerous traditional tabla-solo compositions and focused his
student's attention upon those finer aspects of rendition that bring these
compositions to life in performance, allowing for all the subtleties of
individual interpretation. Both of Nitin's Gurus are disciples of the late Ustad Amir Hussain Khan Saheb, legendary doyen of the Farukhabad Gharana . Nitin has thus
received two perspectives upon
a single tradition and he has enriched his inheritance through his own capacity
for assimilation and interpretation. On moving to the United States in 2002, Nitin received a grant from
the Rhode Island State
Council on Arts . He has been on
the Faculty at the Learn
Quest Academy of Music in
Waltham , MA . Now a resident of New York City , He is actively involved in
teaching, performing, recording, and conducting tabla workshops. He has
recently performed at venues like The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rubin Museum of Art,
The
Asia Society, and The Indian Embassy in New York and The Smithsonian Museum in Washington
DC. He has also conducted lecture-demonstrations and
performed at Brown
University, MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, U Penn, The
University of Chicagoand Drury University. Nitin has performed in some of the major
festivals and venues in
India , the U.S. and in Canada, Germany, France, England, Ireland, Finland, Sri
Lanka and the Baltic countries - Lithuania , Belarus, and Vilnius. He has
performed at the Purcell
Room, London and the India culture centre , Berlin . In India, he has performed at some of
the most prestigious music festivals and venues, including The Pt. Motiram and Pt. Maniram Sangeeth
Samaroh, Hyderabad, The Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra Music conference, Kolkatta, Music Academy, Chennai, SPICMACAY, The St.
Xavier's' IMG Music Festival,
Mumbai, Surya Festival, Trivandrum, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi and the Nehru
Centre, Mumbai. His performance in the musical album entitled "Soul Strings" released by Music Today
has been widely appreciated.
Biographies courtesy
of Guru's websites:
Guru Durga Krishnan's Personal Website
Guru Nitin Mitta's Personal Website
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