Carnatic Vocal Duet By Ranjani & Gayathri: Events in Hyderabad

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Sharada Cultural Trust is organising its 21st Annual Cultural Festival of Music & the 164th Aradhana of Sadguru Sri Thyagaraja Swamy from 31st January to 6th February at Keyes High School. The 7-day festival will feature several renowned Carnatic musicians from all the country - T N Seshagopalan, N Vijay Siva, Rajani and Gayathri, Lakshmi and Subiksha Rangarajan, Manda Sudha Rani, and Balasai and U P Raju - providing a musical fiesta for Carnatic music lovers of the twin cities.

Sister duo Ranjani & Gayathri will be performing a Carnatic vocal duet.

Ranjani & Gayatri are one of the few who have achieved enduring success in both violin and vocal music. They learnt violin at the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Vidyalaya, Mumbai, from Sangeetha Bhooshanam Prof. T S Krishnaswamy. They had their intial training in vocal music from their mother, Meenakshi Balasubramaniam, and later, came under the tutelage of Padma Bhushan Sangeetha Kala Acharya P S Narayanaswamy. They were recipents of the Govt. of India scholarships at the age of 10, and winners of the 1st prize in All India Radio competitions in violin. The sisters have the disctinction of being awarded an 'A' grade by both AIR and Doordarshan in violin as well as in vocal.

They have won several awards including the Kalki Memorial Award from the Kalki Trust, and the prestigious National Eminence Award from Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha, Mumbai. They also won the Outstanding Violinists Award for 4 consecutive years from 1994 to 1998 from Music Academy, Chennai.

The two have performed all over India, and also in Singapore, Malaysia, USA, Canada, Australia and the Middle East. They have to their credit many albums, both violin and vocal.

The Sharada Cultural Trust is an all-women voluntary organisation that has been working for the last 19 years in the field of cultural activities. The programs conducted by the organisation include annual music festival and Thyagaraja Aradhana, annual music competitions, donation of rice to veda pathashalas, and donation of money to Sri Vidya School For Special Children and Devnar School For The Blind.

Entry is free for everyone. Please contact Sharada Krishnan at 98851-44412 / 97034-44542 for further details.