COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (March 21, 2007) – A program of Indian classical music will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 30, at Tennessee Tech University’s Derryberry Auditorium.

A Center Stage event, it is free and open to the public.

The concert of South Indian Carnatic classical music will be presented in a unique format — accompanied by a slide presentation detailing the meaning of lyrics and other important information to help the audience better understand the musical ideas being presented.

The musical program will consist of vocals accompanied by violin and mridangam (an Indian percussion instrument) and will be led by singer Sankaran Mahadevan of the Kalanivedanam School of Music and Dance in Nashville.

He has given many concerts, lectures and demonstrations of various Carnatic music topics in the United States and India and has composed many musical pieces for concerts, classical dance and devotional singing.

Mahadevan studied with several well-respected senior Carnatic musicians, including T. R. Subramanyam. He is a founder of Nashville’s Kalanivedanam School and is a professor of civil engineering at Vanderbilt University.

He will be accompanied by Ramesh Panchagnula on violin and Santosh Chandru on mridangam.

Panchagnula trained under vocalist and violinist Neti Srirama Sarma of Hyderabad, India, and later with Shivkumar Kalyanaraman in Troy, N.Y.

He has performed frequently as a violin soloist on All India Radio of Hyderabad and has presented concerts in India and the United States. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and currently lives and works in Atlanta.

Chandru trained in Mumbai, India, under percussionist T.S. Nandakumar and is well versed in several instruments, including the ghatam, tavil and kanjira, in addition to the mridangam.

He frequently accompanies vocalist K.J. Yesudas in Carnatic music concerts in the United States, and often provides percussion accompaniment for classical dance programs as well. He is a doctoral student in environmental engineering at Georgia Tech.

--Tracey Hackett
This information posted 26 March 2007