History & Vision
Antarnaada is the coming together of multiple streams of activities focusing on celebrating our heritage of Carnatic music with a keen focus on encouraging and growing talent in Central Texas. The streams included house concerts and recitals by local artists, concerts by upcoming artists from India as well as composer day celebrations that encouraged the participation by individuals. In addition to these streams the current Antarnaada events include workshops by renowned artists and gurus as well as lecture demonstrations on focussed topics.
Recognitions
Antarnaada recognizes local teachers for their contribution to the growth of Carnatic music education in the Central Texas area.
Manu Narayanan – 2019
Poornima Rao – 2020
Vishaal Sapuram – 2021
Community Impact
Year – 2020
Capital Food Bank (along with Sewa USA)
Donation towards upa-pakkavadya artists in India
Board Members
Rohit Dhamankar
Rohit Dhamankar believes in the “Nada Yoga” as a path to discover oneself and immerse in absolute bliss He took to Carnatic music as an adult…
Rema Hariharan
Rema Hariharan is a music enthusiast and amateur vainika who has been involved in Austin Carnatic music affairs for the past two decades.
Poornima Rao
Poornima Rao started learning Carnatic vocals from her mother Smt. Vijaya Subramhanyam, got her initial training in Veena from her sister…
Sukanya Sankar
Sukanya Sankar moved to Austin from the Bay Area in 2006. She is an ardent rasika and helped organize events for Antarnaada. She works for Home Depot Canada.
Past Board Members
Seshatre Natarajan
Seshatre Natarajan grew up in Chennai (India) learning Carnatic violin (from Smt. Sowmya Chandramouli and Shri. R. Kailasam)…
Content Director
Raji Parameshwaran
Advisory Committee
Dr. C. M. Venkatachalam
Dr. C. M. Venkatachalam was introduced to music at a very early age by his parents. He studied under Late Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar…
Bhamathi Sudarshan
Bhamathi Sudarshan is a Physicist by profession with a passion for music. She started learning music at the age of six.
Sivarama Kodukula
Sivarama Kodukula is a music enthusiast, specially Indian classical music. He is exposed to Carnatic music at an early age…
Rohit Dhamankar
Rohit Dhamankar believes in the “Nada Yoga” as a path to discover oneself and immerse in absolute bliss He took to Carnatic music as an adult, and has formerly been trained in Hindustani music in his childhood. He has been mainly trained under Dr. Bhamathi Sudarshan in Austin. He has taken advanced lessons from Kalaimamani Charumathi Ramachandran, a doyenne of MLV baani. He also honours the Carnatic Trinity by help organize Tyagaraja Aradhana and Mudduswami Dikshitar/Shyama Shastri days in Austin every year. Professionally, Rohit is involved in technologies that help prevent hackers from breaking into networks. He has worked at many start-ups in the Austin area. He has traveled for work to over 30 countries, and enjoys travel and interacting with different cultures.
Rema Hariharan
Rema Hariharan is a music enthusiast and amateur vainika who has been involved in Austin Carnatic music affairs for the past two decades. She grew up in the outskirts of Mumbai and learned vocal and veena from her mother Saroja Hariharan and later on from several gurus including Saraswathy Krishnamurthy, Gayathri Ramachandran and Dr. Bhavani Rao. Her dream to start something like Antarnaada with the idea of nurturing local talents was sparked after she worked with others to help create an Indian Raga video with several youngsters of Austin. Rema has a PhD in Operations Research and is an engineer by profession. She currently works for AMD, working on Performance Analysis. Rema is a resident of Sunset Valley, a teeny town nested in South Austin.
Seshatre Natarajan
Seshatre Natarajan grew up in Chennai (India) learning Carnatic violin (from Smt. Sowmya Chandramouli and Shri. R. Kailasam) and Bharatnatyam (from Padma Shri Adyar K. Lakshman). Over the past two decades, he has been active in the Central Texas arts scene both as a performer and as an administrator and has participated in many concerts, dance programs, and fundraisers. He co-founded and was part of Austin band Omkara, and University of Texas dance group Nritya Sangam. Seshatre recognized the need to nurture local talent and started organizing composer days as well as concerts by local artists through partnership with various local organizations that culminated in the founding of Antarnaada in 2017. Seshatre works for Emerson Electric.
Poornima Rao
Poornima Rao started learning Carnatic vocals from her mother Smt. Vijaya Subramhanyam, got her initial training in Veena from her sister, Smt. Sangeetha Srinidhi and subsequently took advanced training from renowned flute artist from the Mali school, Vidwan AV Prakash. She has studied sugama sangeetha extensively under Smt. H.R. Leelavathi, a recipient of the CCRT Scholarship and a graded AIR and Doordarshan artist. She has composed and directed musical ensembles for groups such as Stage Sanchaar and for community events including features for Indian Raga Labs. She is an active musician and active in local music organizations. Poornima continues to learn from visiting artists and local maestros alike, and teaches Saraswathi Veena and vocals. She currently works at Austin Community College in Biotechnology education.
Dr. C. M. Venkatachalam
Dr. C. M. Venkatachalam was introduced to music at a very early age by his parents. He studied under Late Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and under Kollam Harihara Bhagavatar in Chennai, India. He also learns with his aunt Smt Bala Narasimhan of Ottawa. He considers the Late Sangitha Kalanidhi T. Viswanathan to be his mAnasika guru from whom he derives inspiration for teaching music. Several music students are trained and guided at Doraiswamy Home of Music founded by him in 1997 in San Diego and later in Austin.
Venkatachalam has been active in organizing concerts and also dealing with audio/video arrangements for concerts. He is one of the founding trustees of Indian Fine Arts Academy of San Diego, CA. In 1999, Cleveland Aradhana Committee bestowed on him the title “Kala Seva Mani”. In 2012 Indian Fine Arts Academy of San Diego presented him with the title “Sangeetha Seva Rathna”. He has a Ph D in molecular biophysics. He was a faculty in University of Michigan and University of Alabama in Birmingham. He worked as a senior scientist in a software company for 23 years to develop computer algorithms for designing drugs.
Bhamathi Sudarshan
Bhamathi Sudarshan is a Physicist by profession with a passion for music. She started learning music at the age of six. She learnt music from three great Carnatic music savants. Her first and primary guru was Sri. Maruthuvakudi Rajagopala Iyer. Later she learnt from Sri. T. Govinda Rao and she learnt padams and javalis from Srimathi. T. Mukta. Bhamathi initiated and has been organizing the Austin Thyagaraja Aradhana with a group of dedicated musicians and music lovers for over 25 years. Bhamathi served on the Organizing committee of ICMCA for several years from its inception and also served as its President for a couple of years. She also teaches Carnatic music.
Sivarama Kodukula
Sivarama Kodukula is a music enthusiast, specially Indian classical music. He is exposed to Carnatic music at an early age through his sisters’ music classes and All India Radio. The teacher Sri U. Apparao recognized the interest in 6 year old boy and started offering harmonium and vocal lessons and played an important role in developing the passion for Carnatic music. Siva then had the great fortune of learning several varnams, kritis and manodharma aspects from Vidwan Sri Sheik Madina, grade A AIR artist in vocal and nadaswaram, who is a disciple of Sri Nedunuri Krishna Murty. The rigorous training under Sri Madina and travel with him on concert tours further enhanced Siva’s passion and keen interest in music. It was a dream come true moment for Siva when he got the opportunity to learn under the tutelage of Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sri Nedunuri Krishna Murty. He feels indebted for all the encouragement and the guidance of his gurus. Siva continues to be active in music circles in India and U.S.A. He enjoys discussions, performing, sharing and most importantly learning. He devotes his time learning Indian classical music on synthesizers and violin.
Contact Us
Phone
+1 512 426 6532
Address
Austin, Texas, United States 78727
music@antarnaada.org