Synthesis: Meeting Rivers

Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath is one of the foremost Carnatic vocalists of her generation known for her rigour and artistry. She began learning music at the age of 3 and her first solo public performance was at the age of 13. The disciple of musical stalwarts Sangita Kalacharya (Late) Shrimati Seethalakshmi Venkatesan, Padmabhushan (Late) Shri PS Narayanaswami, Sangeeta Kalasagaram Shrimati Veghavahini Vijayaraghavan and Vidwan Shri RK Shriramkumar, she has been moulded into the Semmangudi bani and the Veena Dhanammal bani.

As a consummate musician, Aishwarya ‘s performances have found expression in lecture demonstrations, creative collaborations and public concerts at venues of global repute both in India and around the world. She is a highly awarded artist having received the “Outstanding Lady Vocalist” award from the Madras Music Academy for three consecutive years. She is also the recipient of significant awards like the Kalki Krishnamurthy Award, MS Subbulakshmi Award, DK Pattamal Award and the prestigious Govt of India Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture.

Priya Purushothaman is a Hindustani vocalist trained in the style of the Agra gharana under Vidushi Aditi Upadhya, Pandit Sudhindra Bhaumik, and Agra gharana stalwart Pandit Dinkar Kaikini. Over the last 20 years, she has established herself as a leading voice of the next generation of young vocalists, performing at reputed venues around the world including the Barbican Centre, London; Bimhhuis, Amsterdam; Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series, NY; National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai, among others.

As an educator, she runs a global private teaching studio, where she utilizes a contemporary approach to relate to learners of different generations. She has been invited as a guest at leading institutions including Codarts, Rotterdam; Utrecht Conservatory, Utrecht; Syracuse University; Society for Arts and Cultural Heritage, California; to name a few. Priya’s work in music extends to other creative realms. She is the author of the book, “Living Music: Conversation with Pandit Dinkar Kaikini” and the creator of the educational children’s podcast, “Music & Masti”.

Yuji Nakagawa is a Japanese-born sarangi player and one of the senior-most disciples of the late Pt.Dhruba Ghosh. Yuji’s initial months of training in the sarangi was in Varanasi, from senior sarangi master Ustad Faiyaz Ali Khan. He also received technical guidance from Shri Sangeet Mishra. Following this, he trained for over 12 years in the rigorous guru-shishya parampara from Pt Dhruba Ghosh, supported in part by an ICCR scholarship from 2009-2015.

Yuji has performed extensively as a soloist and has also accompanied many eminent Hindustani classical musicians in India, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan.

Yogeesh Bhat is a young Indian classical percussionist specializing in tabla, known for sensitive and thoughtful tabla accompaniment and solo recitals. Born in a music-devoted family from Sagar, Karnataka, his tabla lessons began at the age of 4 from Vidwan Bhaskar Hegde Muttig, followed by training from Pandit Madivalayya Sali. He is currently taking advanced training from renowned tabla artiste Pandit Ravindra Yavagal and Sri Kiran Yavagal. His interest in rhythmic innovation extends to other styles – he is also training in the Carnatic tala system under Vidwan K U Jayachandra Rao. Yogeesh’s musicianship is supplemented by his training in Hindustani violin and vocal music. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Born into a family of musicians, mridangam artiste BC Manjunath is the son of Kalabhushana Dr BK Chandramouli and a student of Ganakalabhushana Vidwan KN Krishnamurthy and Sangeet Kalanidhi Dr TK Murthy. He is a dynamic musician who has collaborated with a range of traditional Indian musicians as well as Western and Jazz artists.

Vittal Rangan is one of the most sought after Carnatic concert violinists. Trained initially by the Late RR Keshavamurthy he soon became a disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Padmashree Guru A Kanyakumari. Having performed over 2000 concerts in a career spanning across more than a decade, Vittal Rangan is an ‘A’ graded violinist of the All India Radio and Doordarshan. He has also been fortunate enough to have accompanied 4 generations of musicians. Among them are great stalwarts and other senior musicians such as Padmabhushan Sri RK Srikantan, Padmabhushan Sri TV Shankaranarayanan, Sri. OS Thyagarajan, Sangeetha Kala Acharya Smt Neela Ramgopal, Sri. S. Shankar, Smt. Aruna Sairam, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Smt. S Sowmya, Sri. Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Sri. Unnikrishnan, Sri. TM Krishna, Smt Ranjani & Gayathri, Smt Vishaka Hari, Sri. N. Ravikiran, Sri Sashank, Sri. Sikkil Gurucharan, Sri Abhishek Raghuram, Sri. TNS Krishna, Sri. Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna, Sri. Saketharaman etc.

Padmavati Rao is an actor, writer, director, translator and poet. As an actor she has worked in Kannada, Hindi, English, Marathi and recently even in Malayalam and Tamil cinema. Her most recent release is a film titled Miniaturist of Junagadh which won critical acclaim at international film festivals and in India. Her solo theatre show Kitchen Poems was shown at the prestigious Theatre Olympics in 2018. Padmavati is also a filmmaker, storyteller, puppet maker and puppeteer. She has authored text books on Life Skills Through Theatre and trains teachers to use theatre in the classroom. She has worked with teachers of private and government schools from around the country in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Lakshadweep and in communities in the Himalayas. She hopes to make theatre more accessible across age groups and geographies. In the last eight years her focus is on villages just outside Bangalore for a start where she endeavours to do and promote natural farming, arts and crafts.