Come April it is Tyagaraja festival time in the USA. Soon after the Cleveland marathon is the Houston festival - in its 26th year this year. The 2004 edition was held on April 24 and 25. There are a few key people here - in fact two dynamic women - Nalini Mukhopadhyay and Prabha Bala who make the festival happen year after year. They are of course supported by an advisory council, by their families,friends, the local music teachers, the rasikas and other music lovers even including from the neighbouring Dallas and Austin as well.

This year visiting Indian artiste groups were that of Bombay Jayashri and Kanyakumari. Both the concerts were well attended and well received. A couple of erudite lecture-demonstrations were also part of the fest. First there was Rajarajeswary Bhat from Mangalore (sister of violin Vittal Ramamurthy). She spoke competently about Tyagaraja's different sets of Pancharatnas, singing phrases from the kritis, including the regular ones and the Lalgudi, Kovvur, and other groups of kritis.It was well received by the rasikas.

Following this was my lec-dem on Ramayana through Tyagaraja's kritis with a focus on Rama's physical beauty and character delineation according to Tyagaraja. Many examples were given from various songs besides comparisons from Kamban, Arunachala Kavi, Purandara Dasa and Subramanya Bharathi.

The 2-day festival was inaugurated by Kusum Tayal, wife of the Consul General of India in Houston. On 24 April, morning, there was an unchavritthi procession from the Meenakshi temple precincts to the auditorium next door. Ram Ganesan donned the role of Tyagaraja and sang for the procession. Other teachers and students followed. A set of bronze idols of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were carried in a small palanquin by the devotees and the atmosphere was very much like Tiruvaiyaru, with some pleasant showers too.

There were CDs for sale outside, and groups of children could be seen everywhere in their best dresses getting ready for their group or individual singing. Local teachers like Anuradha Subramaniam, Asha Narasimhan, Chitra Dharmarajan, Usha Narasimhan, Vittal Ramamurthy and others brought their talented wards for the singing sessions. One however felt that the kids should also be made to listen to the lec-dems and the concerts for further exposure and development. However they all sang with confidence and involvement. There was also a feeling that the crowds were less than usual.

Food was catered by the temple canteen; the temple staff and others helped out very well at the two-day the event. All together it was a nice homage to the great bard of Thiruvaiyaru. Just as Tyagaraja himself said in his thodi kriti, dasarathy --- asa theera doora desamulanu prakasimpa-jesina rasika siromani-rama - 'it is because I sing about you that I am famous in far-off lands (which includes the USA probably!) and you are the greatest Rasika Siromani of my kritis which are devoted to you...'

Contact the organisers of the Houston Thyagaraja Aradhana at E-mail: prabhabala@aol.com

Click here to read a report on the Thyagaraja Aradhana at Houston by Sripriya Sriram, a music student.