Saturday, August 3, 2013

Kavalam Srikumar in Carnatic / Devotional Concert

Classical and Devotional music lovers of Colorado are presenting the legendary Carnatic/Folk singer from Kerala, Kavalam Srikumar in Denver for the first time ever



Srikumar will be accompanied by Denver's very own Priya Hariharan on Violin and Venkat Subramaniam on Mridangam.




Date: Sunday, Oct 21st, 2013
Time:  3:00 - 6:00 PM
Venue: Shirdhi Sai Temple of the Rockies, 10250, E Easter Ave, Centennial, CO, 80112

The organizers would like to thank the board, the trustees and devotees of Shirdhi Sai Temple of Rockies for providing us the venue for this event.


If you are interested in attending this event, please RSVP by visiting this link.

About Kavalam:

Kavalam Srikumar was born in Alleppey. He started learning Classical Music Vocal (South Indian Music) at the age of five. Learned music under the Masters Ambalappuzha Sivasankara Panikkar, Trichur Vaidyanathan, Mavelikkara Prabhakara Varma and Ambalappuzha Thulasi. Had advanced training in Karnatic Music under the famous Violinist Shri.B.Sasikumar of All India Radio, Trivandrum.

Kavalam Sreekumar was the recipient of First Prize in Classical Vocal in the University Youth Festival for 5 Years. Performed Music Concerts all over Kerala, in music sabha’s in Madras and some foreign countries. Visited Russia and Japan in connection with the festival of India. Visited London, Paris, Singapore America and Gulf countries and performed concerts. Visited Europe and Gulf, in November, 2004 and performed classical music concerts as part of Surya Music Festival.

He has a distinctive style of rendering classical music, which also gives importance to voice culture, expression and clarity of lyrics. His soulful, clear, authentic and powerful rendering of scriptures like Ramayana, Bhagavatha, Lalitha & Vishnu Sahasra Namam, Soundarya Lahari, Dhyana Slokas etc are widely listened and acclaimed by Malayalees through out the world. His rendering of Adhyatma Ramayana is telecast every year for one month during July – August in popular Malyalam T.V. channels like Asianet and Amritha. He has also rendered his voice for the following Malayalam films:Agnisakshi, Ashtapadi, Thambu, Ilakkangal, Aalolam, Kanalaattam, Panchajanyam, Madhuchandralekha, Suryan, Nerkku Ner etc.He has anchored for 4 years a very popular music programme entitled “Ragolsavam”, based on classical ragas, in the Kairali Channel T.V.(Malayalam). 

He was awarded with the title “Ramakadha Shukan” by Malliyur Thirumeni in the year 1999 and “Ganapoornasree” from Chettikulangara in 2011. Received Kerala Sangeetha Natak Akademi Award in the year 2012

Rockies Raagaaz Debut Concert

Rockies Ragaaz presents
An Indian Light Music Extravaganza


A Fund Raiser for Brent's Place




Come experience a vibrant evening of music. A light music event w/ live and karaoke offerings and the languages being covered are:


Hindi/ Tamil/ Telugu/ Kannada/ Malayalam/ English

When:

Saturday, Sept 21, 2013

Where: 

DL. Parsons Theater,   Northglenn, CO


Suggested donation $10 per person  


Rockies Ragaaz Team

Artistes are the Rockies Ragaaz vocal team comprising of:

1. Vocal

    Ram Prabhakaran
    Sanjay Sankar
    Meera Ganesan
    Priya Hariharan
In conjunction with:

2. Drums
    Vani Iyer

3. Keys
    Krish Hariharan
    Sanjay Sankar

4. Guitar
    Prasad Subramanian

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Sri Vidyabhushana Concert


Carnatic music concert by Sri Vidyabhushana

            Accompanied by:

           Smt. Priya Hariharan on violin
            Sriram Srinivasan on mridangam

Date: Friday, September 14th, 2012
Time: 6:30 PM to 9 PM
Venue: Broomfield auditorium,
             3 community park road, Broomfield, CO 80020
         

Colorado Kannada Koota and Nada Colorado with support from CFAA is organizing a Carnatic Music Concert by popular vocalist Sri Vidyabhushana well known for his melodious devotional renderings especially the Haridasa compositions, on Friday 14th September 2012 starting at 6:30 pm.

Sri Vidyabhushana is a well known vocalist hailing from Karnataka, India and has hundreds of albums to his credit.  He has given many concerts all over the world including all over USA, performing for more than 20 years. He was honored with the title of Sangeetha Vidya Nidhi in 1994 and was honored with Doctorate by Hampi University.

Sri Vidyabhushana began to learn music from his father late Sri Govindacharya , and for several years was an ardent disciple of Sri B. V. Narayana Aithal of Udupi. In the later years he got training from the famous musician, Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri R. K. Srikantan and then from the well-known vocalist, violinist & mridangam exponent, Padma Bhushana recipient Sri T. V. Gopalakrishnan of Madras.
He is the founding trustee of "Bhakti Bharathi Prathistana", a trust that brings in senior musicians, scholars and musicologists to participate in Haridasa Sammelanas, lecture demonstrations, workshops and concerts.

Ticket Prices:

Kids – Free, Singles - $15, Family - $25
Family Sponsorship - $50.00 (includes two free adult tickets)
Contact:vhunase@gmail.com.

If you would like to sponsor the event, please contact Vinayaka Hunasekoppa at 303-346-2281 or send an e-mail to vhunase@gmail.com.

Red Carpet Evening - Sneak Peek The Golden Hour



Colorado Fine Arts Association joins hands with Jon Tobey  Events to present “A Red Carpet Evening Featuring A Sneak Peek of  The Golden Hour Documentary.” Proceeds to benefit the Golden  Hour Documentary

Denver, Colorado, Sep 4, 2012 – Colorado Fine Arts Association will be presenting a vibrant and musical Bollywood evening for the Colorado community. Complementary cocktail hour and hors d'oeuvres will be followed by dinner, live entertainment and silent auctions at the Casselman’s venue. Food is being catered by Little India. Proceeds of the evening will go directly towards funding the feature length documentary The Golden Hour. The film is at a 90% edit stage. Funds raised will be instrumental in finishing this film.

The Golden Hour is a  documentary about the issue of roadside fatalities through the perspective of a 29 year old visionary. India tops the global list for fatalities due to road accidents, with 18 deaths every hour.  Denver crew and faculty members at CU, Denver,  followedDelhi based Piyush Tewari who  is the founder of  SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-profit that trains bystanders in emergency trauma care services. The Golden Hour captures Tewari’s personal journey of trying to change the cultural mindset of 1.2 billion people.
The film crew will be present in person to promote the film and attendees will get a sneak preview of the film.


Venue: Casselman’s Bar and Venue
Date:November 1st, Thursday
Time:6 pm to 10 pm


The film crew will be present in person to promote the film and attendees will get a sneak preview of the film.

Venue: Casselmans Bar and Venue
Date: November 1st, Thursday
Time: 6 pm to 10 pm


####

Contacts: Roma Sur, Director/Producer
roma@thegoldenhourmovie.com

Deana Macdonald, Producer/Business Manager
deana@thegoldenhourmovie.com


Ajay Menon, President, CFAA
president@coloradofinearts.org


Indira Duggirala, General Secretary, CFAA
gs@coloradofinearts.org



Denver, CO – Aug 27, 2012

###


Media Contacts:

Deana Macdonald
Producer/Business Manager, The Golden Hour LLC
Ph: 720 2732470
deana@thegoldenhourmovie.com

Roma Sur
Director/Producer, The Golden Hour documentary
Ph: 303 641 8429
roma@thegoldenhourmovie.com




Sponsors:
Colorado Fine Arts Association
Little India Restaurant
Casselman’s Bar and Venue
John Tobey Event Design
Oster Jewelers

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Ajit Namboothiri Lecture Demonstration



The following review was written by Shri VK Arunkumar, Board of Director, CFAA

Sri Ajit Namboothiri, a trained musician, researcher and musicologist, is a familiar presence on television as producer, anchor and creator of music-based shows such as Sruthilayam, Lasyam and Raga Ratnam on Amrita TV, visited Denver, CO, the week of May 28, 2012. Ajay Menon, President of the Colorado Fine Arts Association (CFAA) was instrumental in bringing this artiste to conduct teaching sessions/workshops for music students as well as to present a 2-hour concert/lec-dem on Maharaja Sri Swathi Tirunal, his life and contribution to music and also highlight on other composers from Kerala on Saturday June 2, 2012.

The concert/lec-dem commenced with a short video clip from Sri Ajit's 'Sangeetha Satsangam' program being held at the historical location of Thanjavur Amma Veedu. More details can be found from the article in The Hindu at http://www.thehindu.com/arts/music/article3404865.ece

The video clip was from their presentation of Nangayarkootthu, a dying art form in Kerala. Sri Ajit is very interested to preserve these traditions and document them for future generations.

The concert part commenced with Sri Ajit pointing out important aspects of the life of Sri Swathi Thirunal - how he was 'Garbha Sreemaan' (King even while in his Mother's womb), how he patronized all art forms, his fluency in many languages, contributions to the repertoire of Carnatic Music, composing bhajans in Hindustani ragas thereby introducting this compositional form to South India, etc. He also pointed out that many older compositions have probably lost their original tune and maybe even the raga to modern re-tuning efforts. He specifically mentioned the contributions of Harikesanallur Sri Muthiah Bhagavathar, 'RajyaSeva Nirathaha' 'Sangita Kalanidhi' Dr. Semmangudi Srinivasier, 'Sangita Kalanidhi' Sri G.N.Balasubramaniam in bringing these compositions to the concert platform. Special mention of re-tuning 'Bhavayaami Raghuraamam' by Sri Semmangudi was mentioned with the purpose that musicians do not cut out the many charanams since this portrays the full story of Srimad Ramayanam.

Ajit presented the kritis, Maamava Sada Janani (Kanada), Paripahi maam (Mohanam), excerpts from kritis like Devi Pavane (Saveri) while mentioning Navaratri Kritis, Visweseara Darshan Kara (Sindhu Bhairavi) while mentioning bhajans, and so on. He also presented a kriti in Poorva Kambhoji, a raga lost in time, in its existing form. He jovially mentioned not to ask for the lakshana of the raga - this is probably one of the few older tunes that is still in vogue today.

Ajit also pointed out that there were many other Kerala composers like Irayamman Thampi, who had contributed immensely to Carnatic Music. There were many Kathakali padams, employing various rare talams, etc. which are being documented by his and many others's efforts so that they dont get lost to the future generations. This is truly a culture to preserve and propogate with the help of music lovers and connoisseurs.

There were presentations by a group of kids from Highlands Ranch, CO, singing Vande Meenakshi, solo singing of Shyamale Meenakshi and also senior students singing Paripahi maam, Maa Ramanan and Mamava Sada Janani. All of them had learnt these compositions from Sri Ajit during his stay in the area.

By popular request, Sri Ajit concluded his demonstration with the famous Purandara dasar kriti 'Chandra chooda' in Darbari Kanada (a divine favorite of his Guru Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan) and the famous Sri Swathi Thirunal padam 'Poonthen Nermozhi' in Ananda Bhairavi.

Sri Ajit was accompanied by Smt. Priya Hariharan on the violin, Sri. Prashanth Kallur on the flute and Dr. Venkat Subramaniam on the mridangam.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Ajit Namboothiri in Denver

Sangeetha Chinthaamani Ajit Namboothiri will be visiting Denver from May 29th till June 2nd.
He will be conducting workshops from 29th - 1st and conclude his tour with a short lecture / demonstration / Concert on June 2nd.

Details of this event are given below

As another step in our vision of promoting musical appreciation and education, we invite you and your family to kickoff Summer 2012 with an informal evening of enchanting classical music by Sangeetha Chinthaamani Ajit Namboothiri, who is visiting Denver. Our own Priya Hariharan will be playing Violin, Venkat Subramanian playing Mridangam and Prashanth Kallur will be on Flute ! A disciple of Sadguru Shri Neyveli R Santhanagopalan, Ajit is a musicologist, researcher, teacher and a noted TV personality.
Event Details
  • Date: Saturday, 06/02/2012
  • Time: 4:00 - 6:00 PM
  • Location: Parkside Community Center (Rooms 1-3), Anthem Highlands Community Association, 3624, Parkside Center Dr, Broomfield, CO, 80023
  • Entry Fee: The event is Free, but donations will be appreciated. The voluntary suggested donation is $20-$30/family to cover the costs of the event (Primarily the Facility Fee , travel for the artist and potentially some level of honorarium for the artists)
  • Event Sponsorship: This event is blessed by CFAA, but not financially sponsored. It is paid for and arranged by some music lovers in Colorado
  • Contact Phone: (303) 408 3893

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Lavanya Ananth Bharatanatyam Program

Pictures from Lavanya Ananth's Bharatanatyam Program on May 13th, 2012 at the Broomfield Auditorium