“Sunaada Cultural Centre” is the brain child of Nagamani Srinath, has started in 1983 with the aim of teaching south Indian Carnatic music through this centre in the typical Gurukula style to propagate to the future generation.
Nagamani srinath was fortunate to have trained under the Gurukula system by “Musicians of Musicians” Ramanad Krishnan in Madras. “Gurukula system” is an age old practice known as “Sruthi parampara” where there is continuous interaction between the teacher and the student as they live together for years together. During perusing education in music Nagamani had the rare privilege to learn from great Artists like Arakere Narayana Rao, M.L.Vasanta Kumari, Dr. Gouri Kuppa Swami, K.V.Narayanaswamy, T.Brinda/Mukta, T.M.Tyagarajan, V.Ramarathnam, R.Vishveswaran. Having been under the constant guidance and influence by a galaxy of great gurus Nagamani imbibed immense knowledge with impeccable mastery over both lakshya and lakshana. This led her to develop a unique style and Nagamani referred as Combination of great masters. This experience was something that Nagamani feels that shaped her and she strongly felt that this guru-shishya tradition should not stop with her but be passed on to the future generation of students. Hence “Sunaada Cultural Center” came with a purpose and commitment. She started teaching Carnatic Music from basic to masters through this center in typical “Gurukula” style. The teaching activities of this center caters to the needs of both beginners as well as those who seek training in advanced concepts and techniques.
In this centre the students stay with the teacher as they collectively embark on a journey in pursuit of knowledge. Prof. Nagamani srinath is a teacher par excellence and has more than four decades of experience in the art of teaching music. As a Professor and Head of the department of music at Colleges and Universities, as a guru and mentor for a number of students, she has trained a generation of aspiring musicians. Many of her students are artistes of national and international repute. She not only teaches with utmost dedication but also promotes all upcoming young artistes in her own unique way. She is well known for promoting her students in the field of music by providing them with opportunities to lend vocal support in many of her prestigious concerts and participate in musical features.
She is actively involved in teaching music to students across the globe via internet, where number of students has enrolled for her Gurukula online classes. She has also conducted numerous lecture demonstrations and music workshops to music teachers in methodologies of teaching. Sunaada Cultural Centre arranges many festivals, conferences, programs, music workshops, lecture demonstrations of eminent artists. So that students those who are interested in pursuing carnatic music academically can gain the knowledge.
Recording Studio The Cultural Centre has its own recording studio in which the students participate in recording, editing and mastering. Her students are truly a “Blessed lot”.
AIMS & OBJECTIVES OF SCC
“Sunaada Sangeetha Title Course”
SCC has launched “SUNAADA- SANGEETHA”, an academic 6 year course in USA and 3 years in India with a well-designed curriculum. The goal is to prepare potential students to be able to perform a full fledged concert by the end of the course. This curriculum includes all the aspects from Basics to Masters including theory. The main objective and goal is to provide training to the students to become professional performers, listeners, reviewers, analysts and researchers.
Workshops, Lecture Demo, Festivals & Conference:
Sunaada Cultural Center arranges many festivals, conferences and programs of eminent artists. In that perspective, SCC arranges a lot of music workshops, lecture demonstration and concerts from various renowned artists, so that students those who are interested in pursuing Carnatic music academically can gain knowledge and acquaintance with great masters. Like- Prof. T.R. Subramanyam,Delhi, violin mastrio Vid.Lalgudi Jayaraman, Vid. R.K. Srikantan, Vid Titte Krishna Iyengar, Vid. T.N.Shesha Gopalan, Prof. Gowri kuppaswamy. Prof Srikantam Nagendra Sastry. Nagamani herself conducts various workshops in Devotional & classical music at villages to propagate Indian Art and Culture.
Promoting Promising Artists & Talent Search Festival
Sunaada Cultural Centre recognizes learners who can become promising performers wherein Guru Prof Nagamani Srinath herself allows and provides opportunities to sing along with her in major esteemed platforms in order to help students understand the practicalities of a concert. It helps to absorb important aspects of performing experience in live on stage. In this direction, SCC conducts “The State Level Young Talent Search Festival”. Indeed it is a very special and a thoughtful event, where talented students from different gurus and schools of music would be brought to light from various centers. The renowned advisory Board of stalwarts of music officiated as Observers. It is definitely a great achievement of Sunaada Cultural Centre , presided by Dr. Nagamani Srinath, in getting such stalwarts together under one roof to work as one unit in selecting these young and promising artistes and also promoting and molding them to be quality musicians in various ways so as to make them brighter stars of tomorrow.
Group Production
SCC also focuses on thematic group multimedia productions. guru Nagamani Srinath has directed many theme based features that have an exquisite blend of “Sangeeta, Nrutya and Nataka”. Each feature has over 50 performers from the fields of music, dance and drama. Some of her popular features are
* Haridasa Spandana & Haridasa Deepti – Based on Haridasa compositions.
* Bhakti Kampana – Based on Vachana Sahitya.
* Sri purandara/ Thyagaraja Vaibhava – Based on purandara Dasa/Thyagaraja compositions.
* Sanathana Saarathi – Based on the composition on lord Krishna in 14 languages.
* Sahyadri to Chamundiya Varage – Based on the complete works of Kuvempu
* Kavi Kavya Deepti – A magnum opus over ten centuries of kavi/Kannada literature.
* Karnataka Vaibhava – Based on the heritage of different art and artists of Karnataka
* Mysore composers – Nagamani is the director and producer of a 13 episode popular
Television serial that was telecast on Doordarshan’s national network.
In all the above productions, young and upcoming artists are trained to sing in
synchronized harmony along with fine blend of melody. They are groomed to sing both as enhancers of group music as well as solo performers with high level manodharma sangeetha. “Sunaada Gaana” title course in Carnatic Music. Regular classes would be conducted for Junior/Senior/Vidwat and devotional, with a curriculum prescribed by the Secondary Board of Karnataka.
“Gurukula and Sangeetha Saadhane”
Music is a banyan tree, they say. Just as a banyan tree grows to give much needed respite from the sun to weary travellers, so too does music. In order to keep our traditions alive and available for posterity, we have to adapt to modern methods vis-à-vis technology. By taking best advantage of available advanced technologies, a humble effort is made by SCC to preserve and propagate the great treasure of Indian culture and art by adapting technology to conventional methods. Globally a well received project conceived by Nagamani srinath – “Gurukula and Sangeetha Sadhane” an audio – visual representation DVDs and CDs, containing finer aspects of carnatic music lessons from basics to masters are outstanding, enduring, educational materials for training in Carnatic music.Through these DVDs Nagamani takes the students and listeners on an exotic journey in a typical Gurukula style. The knowledge and nuances of music are traditionally imparted through these DVDs and are helpful to the students to observe and learn from a Guru as if one were in close proximity to the guru.
This project contains music lessons from basics to masters – practical, musicology, script of the compositions (notations) in both kannada and English, lecture demonstrations in English and kannada languages, Shlokas, Varnams, Keerthanas, Krities, Thillanas, Devaranamas, Padas, Javalis, Vachanas, and creative music like Ragam, Tanam, pallavi ,Kalpana swara, Nerval. In addition to these through “Sangeeta Sadhana” ACDs the junior, Senior, Vidwath grade curriculum for Karnataka secondary board exam is brought forth. These teaching materials over 500 hours have been well received globally and are popular on global marketing sites including Amazon. The CD’s have helped many students appear for the Karnataka board exams in Music (Junior, Senior and Vidwath). Music is learnt by repetition. Young students in the US and other countries are exposed to Carnatic music lessons through these CDs. The carefully planned lessons have sections where the teacher sings, the students repeat twice giving an opportunity for self learners to sing along as they learn. Then the entire lesson is sung in its entirety with the usual instrumental accompaniment. Recently, these lessons have been and are being uploaded to a dedicated YouTube channel where in the notation/script is played on the video as the song moves along, much like a karaoke track. This is an added advantage for learners as they can visually see the lyrics (both swara and sahitya) as they learn and sing along.
Many remote areas in India and abroad where carnatic music is appreciated have no access to good teachers. Students who have managed to get a hold of these cds dvds have reached out to Sunada cultural center and expressed their gratitude and appreciation for these learning tools. Many of learners got through the examinations with distinction.