RASIKA A YEAR IN RETROSPECT

Transcription

1 RASIKA A YEAR IN RETROSPECT Raman Srinivasan, President Rasika has had a wonderful year 2014 filled with concerts and outreach events, reaching to newer segments of the population. I wanted to recap the highlights of 2014 year for our Rasikas members, donors and audiences, including granting agencies NW Alocleck Drive, Suite 615 Hillsboro, OR ; rasikapdx@gmail.com

2 RASIKA A YEAR IN RETROSPECT Raman Srinivasan, President Rasika has had a wonderful year 2014 filled with concerts and outreach events, reaching to newer segments of the population. I wanted to recap the highlights of 2014 year for our Rasikas members, donors and audiences, including granting agencies NW Alocleck Drive, Suite 615 Hillsboro, OR ; rasikapdx@gmail.com

3 RASIKA Young vocalist Sakethraman in concert MUSIC SCHOOL VOCAL VIOLIN MRIDANGAM MANDOLIN GUITAR KEYBOARD MRIDANGAM GHATAM KANJIRA KONAKKOL CONCERTS MUSIC DANCE OUTREACH EVENTS WORKSHOPS MASTER CLASSES LECTURES Music school students at Washington County Museum, Hillsboro

4 APRIL 2014 SANGAMAM: Confluence of Arts Newmark Theater Portland s5 Centers for the performing Arts B. Vijayan, Mridangam faculty supporting students of RASIKA We started the year in April 2014, with a unique student show case at the Portland s5 centers for the performing Arts, Newmark, providing a prestigious venue for our music students to perform with music school faculty and also local dance students. This was free and open to public, so students were able to invite their extended friends and family to the event to showcase their talents. Violin students, guided by teacher E B Jayaprakash performing

5 MAY 2014 Young vocalist Saketharaman Lecture: Rasika Music Studio Concert: Intel JFCC, Hillsboro The month of May 2014 saw the return of the young master Sakethraman to Rasika. He presented a lecture on Carnatic music in his own wonderful style, followed by an exceptional concert. The Rasika Music studio has definitely become a favorite venue for artists and Rasika audiences alike. This was a very well appreciated and successful event. In May 2014, Rasika was also honored to bring back renowned classical Carnatic vocalist T. N. Seshagopalan in downtown Portland. This concert received grant from by Tourwest-Westaf, which supported part of the troupe s artistic fee. MAY 2014 Musicologist/ scholar T. N. Seshagopalan Lecture: Rasika Music Studio Concert: First Christian Church, Portland

6 SUMMER 2014 Rasika Music Faculty in concert! Five Dance arangetrams at Portland & Seattle (student graduation dance recitals) Rasika music school faculty Violinist EB Jayaprakash & Mridangist B. Vijayan performed at five dance arangetrams at Portland and Seattle during the months of June through August 2014 as live accompaniment for the dance recitals. They are sought after musicians in the Northwest.

7 JULY 2014 RASIKA Booth at the Beaverton International Festival Marketing by our Volunteers!! Kudos Volunteers provided local transport, food, lodging, front of house ticketing, back stage support, audio, lighting support, set up and removal of stage, and many more duties. Rasika welcomed back Ramkumar Vaidyanathan, Rasika volunteer Vinod Natarajan, Lakshmi Sudha, Deepak Canchi, Prashanth Madras, Shantha Boddapatti, Krishna Bharath Kolluru, and many more who supported the mission and goals of Rasika. KUDOS TO ALL OF YOU! JULY 2014 RASIKA Music School Opening of the new branch at Seattle Two locations In July, we also started the new ranch of our music school at Seattle (at two locations) and have been successfully conducting music classes (violin, vocal, mridangam etc) at the two locations every Sunday by our two music school faculty.

8 AUGUST 2014 Rasika was busy even in peak summer! Indian-Bollywood community concert Indian-Jazz fusion concert In August 2014, the peak summer month, a local community involved Bollywood and classical fusion event was presented with our music faculty and artistic director at Intel Auditorium. This was a free event that attracted new audience who typically do not attend classical concerts. In August, we also presented Indian Jazz fusion with well known jazz musicians including MacArthur Genius fellow drummer Dafnis Prieto from New York along with Osam Ezzeldin, jazz pianist with our Indian violinist Ganesh, ghatam (clay pot) percussion artist SV Ramani. Portland's renowned performer as guest artist Jayanthi Raman presented a short 15 minute solo with the musicians, invited by the lead artist. This received rave reviews. This was attended by some of Jazz enthusiasts and we had the marketing support of World Affairs Council of Oregon and PICA. This concert was presented at the Portland s 5 centers for performing arts and was a successful for a summer program. The Willamette Week referred to this concert as 'one of the season s most intriguing world music fusion concerts.' This concert was funded by project grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council RACC and artist fee support from Tourwest-Westaf.

9 SEPTEMBER 2014 Violin duo exponents Mysore Nagaraj & Manjunath Concert: Rasika Music Studio In September 2014, Rasika featured exceptional violin duo brothers: Mysore Nagaraj and Dr. Manjunath and troupe from India at the Rasika Music studio. Again, the concert was well received with much acclaim. This concert received grant from by Tourwest- Westaf, which supported part of the troupe s artistic fee. September also saw a great loss for our world of music, the sudden demise of our beloved artist, friend and maestro Mandolin U Shrinivas! We bid tearful goodbye to him. He was a personal friend and will be truly missed. SEPTEMBER 2014 Farewell to Mandolin maestro U Shrinivas

10 OCTOBER 2014 Raga Sandhya: Music Faculty concert On Oct 3, 2014, our Rasika school music faculty: Violinist EB Jayaprakash and Mridangist B. Vijayan were invited to present a full length Classical Violin concert with Indian percussion by Salem Public Library auditorium and had a near full house attendance for the concert. This helped market Corvallis branch of our music school. OCTOBER 2014 Vijayadashami Celebrations RASIKA Music Studio Students of RASIKA School of Music and Arts celebrated Vijayadashami and Vidyarambam performing for the local community showcasing their talents, and offering homage to their Gurus, our eminent music school faculty. OCTOBER 2014 Arts NW Conference Rasika is member of Arts Northwest and had a booth at the ArtsNW conference held mid October in Eugene.

11 OCTOBER 2014 Bharatha Natyam dance ballet Ananda Shankar Jayant & Troupe Winningstad Theater, Portland s5 Centers for the Performing Arts On October 24th, 2014, Rasika presented renowned dancer Ananda Shankar and troupe of 10 dancers from India again at Portland s5 centers for performing arts, was well advertised to the local downtown community through the performing art center s blasts to their concert attendee list and brought newer audiences, widening our audience base. This concert received grant from by Tourwest-Westaf, which supported part of the artistic fee.

12 NOVEMBER 2014 INCREDIBLE INDIA! Outreach Event Washington County Museum, Hillsboro During November, RASIKA presented Incredible India partnering and presenting at the Washington County Museum, Hillsboro. This outreach event featured local artists, music and dance students from the community as well as arts/crafts display etc. The event was well attended. Hillsboro Mayor Wiley, graced the occasion and spoke highly of Rasika s commitment to presenting high quality artistry to local residents enhancing diversity. This project was supported by grant from the Hillsboro Arts and Culture Council. Our community partner was the Washington County Museum, Hillsboro. The Portland Tribune carried half page coverage along with photo of event on the cover page.

13 Overall, about 14 outreach events and concerts in 2014 by Rasika have made this a very successful and fulfill year. Projects like these have reached newer audiences and increased community support for our events. Thank you for your support, especially funders like Westaf-Tourwest who have been consistently supportive of Rasika s efforts to bring high quality Indian performing art programming and outreach to the Northwest concerts will be announced soon. To volunteer: contact rasikapdx@gmail.com or one of our music school faculty. Happy New Year. Raman Srinivasan President R A S I K A RASIKA THE CULTURAL AWAKENING CONTINUES.