RaGaJam III on 20-Feb

All - Thanks for your presence, participation, and encouragement. 49 performances covering Bharatanatyam (students of Smt. Ramaa Venugopalan, Lakshmi Kalaalayam), Veena, Bhavageethe, Keyboards and Guitars, WOW!!! To completely close the loop as part of the learning process, requesting all students (those who performed as well as those who came to listen and observe) to talk to their respective teachers during their next class. A small discussion will help exchange notes and get a better understanding of areas that worked well and areas of improvement.

Would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers without whose help an event of this magnitude could never have been put together. Highly grateful to our friendly neighbourhood AXIS BANK, RBI Layout (as Mr Jayanth rightly put it when he addressed the gathering during the break!) for co-sponsoring this event with Music Gear.

A special thanks to all those who stayed on (even after their performances) to cheer and support the others. For all those who have upcoming examinations, wishing you all the Very Best. Show the same passion for preparing for your exams as you did for for this event. This would be our way of acknowleding Prof. Vinod Kumar's (www.motivocean.org) views on how to work on being the best in whatever we set out to do. Thanks Prof, for your time and enthusiastic presence till we all packed up!

Hope to post some links to videos & pics as we receive them ...

Thanks - RaGa Team

Re-surfacing (Yet again!)

Yeah, hate to say it, but I guess it all boils to down to effective time management. No excuses. But for those who thought this blog was dead and gone ... give it another chance!
Plenty happened these past few months. Moved the store (Music Gear) twice and now it is co-located along with the School in the ground floor of the same building as before. Arjun has been a great help part-time (not to forget the support from my wife and kids) and hope to add a permanent staff member from Feb.
Guitar, Keyboard, Veena and Bhavageethe classes have seen a lot of action and in a few weeks' time I look forward to seeing Bharatanatyam enthusiasts setting off new vibrations in the environment!
Looking forward to RaGaJam-II on 20-Feb ....

RaGaJam - 11 April 2010

Time flies ... it's already been a couple of weeks and it's only now that I'm getting down to writing a few words about the get-together we had! Though we missed a few performances, we got to see close to 30! Thank God, we decided to switch the venue to the Elita Clubhouse as opposed to the terrace at RaGa.

For those who missed the event, here's what happened in a nutshell. We kicked off with an invocation by Spoorthi's students Veeraja, Raksha Ravi and Raksha Vijay. And then it was the turn of Smt Meena's Veena students, Shuba and Gayathri. The Veena by itself sounds great, but a little bit of chorus via the amps seemed to make the notes sound out of the world! Next time round, I'm looking forward to a combination of Veena, Keys, Guitars and Drums :)

Dishana kicked off the solo performances by the junior guitarists. Was great to see all these upcoming students playing their pieces for the first time in front of an audience of over 150. Was inspiring to see them come in one by one ... Shidharth, Praanjal, Ayaan ... and letting their little fingers do all the singing!

The keyboardists, not to be outdone, kicked off with a wonderful performance by little Nalina followed by Sneha, Aakanksha and Praachi. Archana and Kishan became the first ever wife-husband team to perform at RaGaJam with their keyboard-guitar combine!

A musical event without some percussion ? We had Nicky, a guest drummer who not only combined with her sister, Rhea and friend Prathiba on guitars, but also gave a thundering solo performance on her Yamaha kit. I'm sure this all-girl-band must have inspired many in the audience.

Signing off, I must say that this event would not have been possible without the support and passion of many friends and kin who rolled up their sleeves and helped with all the logisitics. Looking forward to the next one ...

PS: Still collating pictures from people who took them. Here's a bunch to which I will keep adding ... http://picasaweb.google.com/RaGaSoM/RaGaJam#. Hope to add some videos also ...