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ROSHNI Telugu

Comments from our previous Roshni audience.

Venue: Foothill College Theater,
          12345 El Monte Road
           Los Altos Hills, CA 94022.
           Driving Directions

Tickets on Sale now VIP, $25, $15, $10;

20 % discount for children and seniors

Male Vocalists

Madhu is a playback singer of repute in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada movies. He has won many awards / prizes in school and college competitions. Madhu has sung nearly 650 songs, so far, in albums (light, devotional & old re-mix) and Tele Serials. He has also sung nearly 55 songs in films including dubbed films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. He has performed in nearly 1200 concert tours in India and abroad along with almost all the leading Playback Singers -- such as Smt. Chitra, Smt. L.R. Easwari, Smt. S. Janaki and Smt. P. Susheela, from the South Indian Film Industry. He has the distinction of performing at the Symphony Hall (First Asian to perform) in Birmingham, UK, in five languages with famous female playback singer Smt. S. Janaki. Madhu also has won several distinguished awards, both in India and abroad.

Ram Prasad is a Software Engineer by profession and singer by passion.  He has learnt Carnatic Music and he is a graded AIR and TV artist. He has released several Solo albums in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. He was introduced to Kannada movies by Veteran Music Director G.K.Venkatesh and later sang for few Kannada movies and also Kannada and Telugu T.V.Serials. The latest song he sang "Moodal Kunigal Kere.." for a Kananda movie "nanna preethiya hudugi" has become a super hit all over Karnataka and the song was also on SUN TV's Top Ten Hits of Karnataka for several weeks. You can listen to it at

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/l/YY00000D0S 

Raju Idury has been a music lover since childhood and learned briefly Carnatic and Hindustani styles of classical music while pursuing his College and University education at Narsapur and Nagpur respectively. He was inspired by Ghantasala and Mohd Rafi whom he admired and emulated their styles while singing their songs in his performances. He has been more of a self-taught singer performing on the stage and in private parties in India, in the Middle East and in North America. He actively toured and performed in North America mainly for Telugu people and a few North Indians and their associations including BATA, TANA, ATA, TASC and Silicon Andhra etc. since 1985. He has time and again offered his talent to non-profit and charitable organizations. Raju Idury won numerous trophies and was honored by his admirers. He has his own music group called Sadhana.

Gayatri Avvari was introduced to music at a very tender age by her parents Smt. Rajyalakshmi and Sri Koteswararao Tangirala.  She began her formal training in carnatic music under Smt. Padmavati of Hyderabad at the age of twelve.  Later she continued her musical studies with Smt. Neeta Chandrashekhar, currently a music lecturer in Telugu University. She successfully completed a special course on Annamacharya Sankeertanas with Vidushini Smt. Shobha Raju, who holds honorary doctorate for her research on the same. In 1992, she continued her advanced classical training with renowned Divyanama Sankeertanam exponent, Veda Thiruvaiyaru Sri S. R. Krishnan in Los Angeles. Gayatri has performed in numerous organizations in India , Los Angeles and San Francisco .  She is well-known for her exposition of Annamacharya Kritis and currently continues her research of the same.

VK—(Vijaykumar)  Started formal carnatic vocal training from his aunt Smt. Bharati in Madras for 4 years since 1983 continued under the guidance of gottu vaadhya vidhwan Late. Shri. Kittappa in Madras for about a year in 1987. He was a part of a light music group AALAAPANAA formed by his brother Rajan in Madras (in 1992), for about 2 years, and performed in tamil light music shows (including computer sequenced music using MIDI – Musical Instruments Digital Interface). He is an active member and co-founder of PALLAVI music group in the SF Bay Area, started back in 1995 – performing in over 25 multi-lingual (tamil, hindi, telugu and kannada) light music shows throughout the Bay Area, for all types of organizations (charitable and otherwise). He has performed occasionally in semi-classical, classical and devotional programs as a keyboard accompaniment. He plays keyboards, sings and whistles; Composes and sequences music and maintains a website, providing notes and chords for famous Indian movie songs (for FREE) at http://my.123india.com/keyless

Guitar

Dhritiman Dasgupta ( Bass Guitar ) has been playing the rhythm/lead guitar for rock bands, ever since school/college days in India. He has had formal training in tabla as well and has performed at various levels including the AIR. He has played for various bands in the Bay Area including shruthi/Dhun/raaga/kannada koota.

Hari Nikesh. As good as it Gets!. Hari lives and breathes Drums. He began his Music career in 1983 and has travelled all around the world ( Malaysia, Singapore, Ceylon, U.A.E., Australia, Japan, the whole of Europe, South Africa and USA) with Play-back singers like, Mr.T.M.S.,Mr.S.P.Balasubramaniam Mr.Udit Narayan, Mr.Jayachandran, Mr.Malayasia Vasudevan, Mr.Mano, Mr.P.B.Sreenivas, Mr.A.V.Ramanan and Uma Ramanan, Smt.P.Suseela, Smt.S.Janaki, Smt.M.S.Rajeswari, Smt.Vani Jayaram, Smt. L.R.Easwari, Smt.Anuradha Padwale and Miss.Kavitha Padwale and Smt.Anuradha Sriram. He started his Film Music Carrier in 1991 and has played for Music Directors such as, Mr.M.S.Vishwanathan, Mastero IIlayaraja, Mr.Raj-Koti, Mr.Keeravaani, Mr.Sirpi and Mr.Ramani Bharadwaj.

Ravi Gutala is originally from Hyderabad, India and has been initiated at a very early age into Tabla by Shri P.Anjaiah, a senior staff artiste at AIR, Hyderabad, India. Currently he resides in San Jose, California and is studying Tabla under Maestro Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, CA. He also has been teaching Tabla to a number of aspiring students in the Bay Area. Ravi has won numerous awards and is a recipient of All India National Talent Search Scholarship. He had been a regular performer at AIR, Hyderabad, India during 1982-1986. He has accompanied many noted artistes such as, Pt.Jasraj, Smt.Lakshmi Shankar, Pt.Sachdev, Dr.Rajeev Taranath, Dr.L.Subramaniam, Pt.Madhav Gudi, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Shri Tejendra Mazumdar, Shri Sanjeev Abhayankar, Ms Shweta Jhaveri etc. He has 3 CD recordings and many cassette recordings to his credit. Ravi designs semiconductor chips for a living.

Triple Congo / Latin Congo / Dholak / Naal / Bongos

Raj Raghavan: Fortunate to have been raised in a family of musicians, who played lead roles in music groups that are household names in Chennai, Raj has been performing on stage since the age of 5. When Raj first took the stage, they had to stack some pillows on the chair so he could reach the Congo! In addition to playing a variety of Indian and Latin percussion instruments, Raj is an accomplished singer and has recorded for All India Radio and Philippines Broadcasting Corp.  Raj has performed with several leading groups in India and in the bay area. Raj has also led several multi-lingual light music shows in the bay area to raise funds for several charities and the Shiva Vishnu temple in Livermore.

Rajeev Subbarao has been playing Mridangam from the tender age of 7 years. His Guru is Sri.M. Gururaj who is a renowned Mridangam and Morching artist. Rajeev continued his tutellage under the famous Mridangam teacher from Bangalore Sri. T.A.S.Mani. Along with being a good Mridangam player, Rajeev is also an excellent Gattam artist. He has supported several artists' concerts in India and the US.

Atul Vaidya, during his 28 years of technical profession, Atul’s first love has remained music. He has done professional quality sound-mixing and audio management for a variety of events and artists such as-- Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Hariprasaad Chaurasia, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Zakir Hussain, amongst others. Atul has extensive experience in turn-key technical event management, audio-video recording, special effects, and background music for plays and sound management for small house concerts.
 

Krishna Sivaramapuram is a singer with a special interest in Audio Engineering. He is a co-founder of the famous light music group in the Bay Area, ‘Pallavi” and he also started a full fledged light music group in Oregon State University. He has gained extensive experience in the audio engineering part of each show. He has even completed audio engineering work for accomplished fusion music composers in the Bay Area and has an audio recording and mixing studio at home.