Prakruti Swaras

Mangala Karthik is a Carnatic music vocalist and teacher. She has also donned the roles of radio jockey, interviewer and writer. She is a disciple of the legendary violinist Padmabhushan Lalgudi Jayaraman and renowned teacher, Sangeetha Kalacharya Neela Ramgopal.

She is a graded artiste of AlI India Radio and has been performing for over a decade now. She pursued her passion after quitting a career in software. With a wide range of interests, she has chosen different lines of work within Carnatic music. She was an anchor with World Space satellite radio, on the very popular 24 hour Carnatic music channel – ‘Shruti’. She has written many articles on music and musicians and these have been published in reputed publications like the Deccan Herald newspaper and Sruti magazine. She has done workshops that introduce the art form to lay audiences. With her husband S.A Karthik, she been teaching music at their music school ‘Anandi centre for music’ for many years now. The music school has close to 100 students which includes all age groups.

The music school not only focuses on the pedagogy but also on a happy pursuit of the artform. A sensitivity in approach and thoroughness in instruction is the hallmark of the music school. Accompanying her on the program are 8 students from her music school.

Violin accompaniment is by Sri. S. Arunachala Karthik. He trained under Sri. Mangalam Shankar, Sri. CN Chandrasekhar and L. Nagaraju and later received advanced violin training from Sangita Kalanidhi Padma Bhushan Sri. MS. Gopalakrishnan. He has performed in major Sabhas in and around Chennai from 2003 to 2011. He lives in Bangalore presently. He is a B-High grade artiste of All India Radio . His concert experience includes concerts at The Music Academy, Mylapore Fine Arts Society, Krishna Gana Sabha, Indian fine arts and Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. Has been a regular performer at AIR Chennai and Bangalore since the year 2003. He has been teaching and performing full time since 2020.

Mridangam accompaniment is by Sri. Vinay Nagarajan M, a disciple of Vid Nayanaswamy and Vid Bangalore SV Balakrishna. He is a direct B high grade artist in Mridangam and B grade in Konnakol from All India Radio, Bengaluru. He has accompanied various Carnatic musicians in prestigious sabhas and music festivals through India. He has also been accompanying Sampradaya Bhajan and Bharatanatyam performances too. He has been teaching mridangam to various students worldwide and is a faculty for Mridangam and konnakol at Nritarutya, Upadhye School of Dance, Bmusician. He has received various awards like Best percussionist award from Iskcon and Yuva Kala Sadhaka from Sphurana Kala Kendra. He is also part of the trio Rasa Triangle which has received lot of appreciation for its intimate audience performances.