Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana Indian Classical music festival April 1-12, 2010
The Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana is the largest Indian classical music festival outside of India. It was first celebrated in 1978 and has now grown to be a 10-day festival with more than 8,000 attendees with 2,000 appearing for the opening weekend. The year 2010 is the Aradhana's 33rd year.
The Aradhana Committee is a group of volunteers who spearhead the planning and organization of the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The volunteers work closely with various other Carnatic music organizations in the United States and Canada to bring artists to Cleveland for the festival.
The president of the Aradhana Committee is R. Balasubramaniam. Affectionately known to many Carnatic music rasikas as Cleveland Balu, he has been serving the Aradhana Committee and since the inception of the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana more than 20 years ago. He has worked closely with organizers throughout the country and has arranged tours for almost every well-known Carnatic musician in India.
V.V. Sundaram explains that the Aradhana is a national event that happens to be in Cleveland in this video clip. He tells about the festival and then we see snippets of two performances.
