About CCMA
2006 & 2007
The 2006 and 2007 seasons were important milestones for CCMA.
With an expanded committee and a number of new membership
options we conducted a strong membership drive. Committee
members have worked tirelessly to canvas new members. Diversity
in program offerings included Bharathanatyam, more instrumental
programs as well as workshops and interactive events for members
and children. We have seen a marked increase in attendance at
concerts. It has been heartening to see the number of people who
have stepped up to become Benefactors and Donors and extended
their financial support of CCMA to the next level. We now have
sponsors for at least half our programs.
With the help of donors and sponsors and we have been able to
upgrade microphones and audio cables and added a second feedback
monitor. The new equipment has made a huge difference to the
sound quality. Raja Kountanya should get most of the credit for
his research and recommendations on what equipment to buy. Our
next objective is to upgrade the speakers in the coming year or
two.
The new codes of conduct regarding loitering, food and drink,
and supervision in the lobby have taken hold. The ambience has
improved. There are fewer disturbances and the concert
experience is much better. These measures have also helped the
children who want to sit and listen to the concerts without
being disturbed. At every program it is heartening to see we
have dozen or so youngsters who set the tone for concert
etiquette. The new CCMA website continues to attract visitors
and registrants. The website has become one of the leading
sources of new members. Frequent updates, an exclusive from
Sruti magazine for monthly content & pertinent articles, sound
clips from Worldspace radio and links to concert reviews are all
reasons to visit the website. If you are reading this, we are
sure you will agree that this is one of the top sites for its
genre in North America today. Many thanks to CloserLook Search
Services Inc. For their generous support and excellent website
work. Kudos to our committee members who have each taken up the
tasks of arranging hospitality, publicity, soliciting sponsors,
keeping accounts, and sharing in all the set up and cleanup it
takes to organize every program. It is wonderful to work with a
team of talented and dedicated individuals who give of
themselves despite busy lives and place the needs of the
organization first.
All this said, it is still difficult to canvas support for
Carnatic Music and Bharathanatyam. Expanding support beyond the
committed core of rasikas proves difficult. The average cost of
admission still lags behind a movie ticket and fast food. We
would like to see every family with a child who is learning
music or dance become members. We would like to be able to pay
artists better. CCMA would like to remain a member driven
organization and we would like to have most of the revenue come
from membership rather than donations. If you enjoy these
performing arts and want to see them continue to be staged in
Central Ohio; if you want your children to have the opportunity
to hear and to meet leading artists of the Carnatic world; if
you would like to see these arts flourish and enrich our lives;
be a member of CCMA and work with us to further these goals.
Enjoy the programs and experience the joy we share as we succeed
in these efforts.
Shankar Ramachandran
President
2005
We have successfully completed the fifth year of activities
in CCMA. We arranged nine quality programs this year. We also
participated in the Arts festival of the City of Upper
Arlington. Our thanks are due to all our members and patrons, to
the families who hosted the artists during the year, to Nat
Rammohan, Dr. Sudhir Sehgal, Dr. ManmohanKatapadi and Dr.
Prabhakar Modur for financial support, Jayashree and Ishwar for
arranging the Hall and the volunteers who helped in making the
arrangements before and after the concerts.
Our website has gone through couple transitions; first from
Karthik to Prakash Parasuram and then to CloserLook Complete
Website Solutions, thanks to the help of Shankar Ramachandran
and Sumithra Jagannath.
For next year we have a number of new members elected to the
committee. Please welcome, Jayanthi Prakash, Smitha Magal,
Jayanthy Srinath, Raja Koutanya, Kishore Sarathy and Shankar
Ramachandran. Please join me in welcoming them. Together, we
plan to bring you an outstanding 2006 season. Our 2006 line up
is going to be strong and will include Ranjani-Gayathri, S
Sowmya, and others. On January 7th we have a special Thiruppavai
Program. Encourage your friends to become members and help us
continue to grow and improve our programs.
As the President I express my sincere thanks for the
continued support and cooperation I have received from the
members of the Executive Committee.
Ram Chandrasekar President
2004
On November 20, 2004 the General Body Meeting of the
Association was held. The Secretary of the Association read out
the report from Nat Rammohan on the election of office bearers.
Two nominations were received - those of Anu Hariharan and Ram
Chandrasekar and both of them were declared elected unopposed.
The treasurer’s report indicated an income of $ 9071 and an
expenditure of $8358. The closing balance was $1025.
The President then presented the following report.
We have successfully completed the fourth year of activities.
We arranged the following eight programs. We also contributed to
the Arts festival of the Upper Arlington City.
Our thanks are due to all our members and patrons, to the
families who hosted the artists during the year, to Nat Rammohan,
Elegance of India, Dr. Sudhir Sehgal, Dr. Manmohan Katapadi, Dr.
Lakshmi Seshadri for financial support and the volunteers who
helped in making the arrangements before and after the concerts.
As the President I express my sincere thanks for the
continued support and cooperation I have received from the
members of the Executive Committee.
Ram Chandrasekar President
Programs in 2004
| Main Artist(s) |
Instrument |
Accompanists |
Date |
| Prof. S.R. Janakiraman |
Lec-Dem |
Jayashankar Balan - Violin Vinod Seetharam - Mridangam |
March 20 |
| Ravikiran |
Chitraveena |
Jayashankar Balan - Violin Rohan Krishnamurthy - Mridangam |
April 03 |
| Vijay Shiva |
Vocal |
R.K.Sreeramkumar - Violin J.Vaidhyanathan - MridangamVocal |
May 02 |
| Bombay Jayashree |
Vocal |
H.N.Bhaskar - Violin Poongulam Subramanian - Mridangam |
May 23 |
| TR Subramanyan |
Lec Dem |
|
June 06 |
| Ajit Ranganathan |
Flute |
Shankar - Violin Kalyan Shenkottah - Mridangam Ravi Balasubramanian - Ghatam |
Sep 06 |
| Sanjay Subramanyan |
Vocal |
Nagai Muralidharan - Violin Mannargudi Easwaran - Mridangam |
Oct 17 |
| Vikram Sundararaman |
Vocal |
Ravishankar Rajagopalan - Violin Rohan Krishnamurthy - Mridangam |
Nov 20 |
Historical - 2003
Report on the Annual General Body Meeting:
The Annual General Body meeting of the CCMA was held on
Saturday November 16, 2002 at the Riley Auditorium, 178 West
Park Street, Westerville, OH.
The Election Return Officer, Nat Rammohan presented the
results of the election for the Executive Committee. There were
two nominations received for the two vacancies, those of
S.Thiagaraja Rao and Shankaran Krishnaswamy. They both were
declared elected unapposed for the three year term beginning Jan
2003.
The Treasurer then presented the final accounts for the
fiscal year 2001.After this the President presented the Annual
Report.
We have successfully completed the third year of activities.
We arranged the following nine concerts. We also arranged a
one-day work-shop in Carnatic music conducted by Geetha Bennett.
Three neighboring Universities supported this program. These
would not have been possible without you sustained support and
the enthusiasm and help of many volunteers. Our thanks are due
to all our members and patrons, to Shri Aswath who got our
brochures printed at no cost, to the families who hosted the
artists during the year, to Nat Rammohan, Elegance of India, Dr.
Jawahar Pala, Dr. Sudhir Sehgal, Dr. Manmohan Katapadi, Dr.
Lakshmi Seshadri for financial support and the volunteers who
helped in making the arrangements before and after the concerts.
As the President I express my sincere thanks for the continued
support and cooperation I have received from the members of the
Executive Committee.
Ram Chandrasekar President
Events Conducted in 2003
| No. |
Main Artist(s) |
Accompanists |
Date |
| 1 |
S.Shashank(Flute) |
B.U.Ganeshprasad (Violin), P.S.Phalgun (Mridangam),
A.S.Shankar (Ghatam)
|
Sun, Mar 16 |
| 2 |
Geetha Benett (Veena) |
Jayanth.B (Mridangam), Ravi.B (Ghatam) |
Sat, Apr 5 |
| 3 |
Jayanthi Kumaresh(Veena) |
Neyveli Narayan (Mridangam) |
Thu, Apr 24 |
| 4 |
Ranjani & Gayatri (Vocal) |
H.N.Bhaskar (Violin) & Manoj Siva (Mridangam) |
Fri, May 2 |
| 5 |
Aruna Sairam (Vocal) |
B.V.Raghavendra Rao (Violin), J.Vaidhyanathan (Mridangam), S.Karthik (Ghatam) |
Fri, May 16 |
| 6 |
Ganesh, Kumaresh (Violin Duet) |
Neyveli Venkatesh (Mridangam) T.Radhakrishnan (Ghatam) |
Sat, May 31 |
| 7 |
M.S.Sheela (Vocal) |
Charulatha.R (Violin),
A.Ananthakrishna.S (Mridangam), B.S.Arunkumar (Morsing)
|
Fri, Jun 13 |
| 8 |
Kiranavali Narasimhan (Vocal) |
Akkarai Subbalakshmi (Violin), J.Vaidhyanathan (Mridangam) |
Sat, Sep 20 |
|
9 |
O.S.Thiagarajan (Vocal)
|
Delhi Sunderrajan (Violin), Neyveli Narayanan (Mridangam) |
Sun, Oct.19 |
Historical - 2002
Report on the Annual General Body Meeting:
The Annual General Body meeting of the CCMA was held on
Saturday November 16, 2002 at the Riley Auditorium, 178 West
Park Street, Westerville, OH.
The Election Return Officer, Nat Rammohan presented the
results of the election for the Executive Committee. There were
two nominations received for the two vacancies, those of
S.Thiagaraja Rao and Shankaran Krishnaswamy. They both were
declared elected unapposed for the three year term beginning Jan
2003.
The Treasurer then presented the final accounts for the
fiscal year 2001.After this the President presented the Annual
Report.
Annual Report:
CCMA, during its second annual season, conducted eight
concerts by artists visiting from India. The spring season
started off with a concert by Raji Gopalakrishnan (vocal),
followed by Ramani (flute), Unni Krishnan (vocal), Omanakutty
Nair (vocal) and Balakrishna (veena). The fall season had three
programs: T.M.Krishna (vocal), Sowmya (vocal) and Rama Ravi
(vocal).
During 2002, we had a total of 52 family members, 17
individual members, 6 senior members and 5 student members. We
continued our professional cooperation with CMAO (Dayton) by
providing discounts for their members at our concerts and
receiving such discounts for CCMA members at their concerts. We
also purchased the audio system. We are now in the process of
filing a petition with the IRS for a non-profit organization
status for CCMA.
All these would not have been possible without your sustained
support and the enthusiastic help from many volunteers. Our
thanks are due to all our members and patrons, to Sri Aswath for
printing our brochures gratis, to the families who hosted the
artists during the year and to many volunteers who participated
in making the arrangements before and after the concerts. We
thank Sri Nat Rammohan, Sri Gopi Santhanam and Sri Suresh Pillai
for financial support to purchase the audio equipment.
We are planning another exciting music season for CCMA in
2003 which may include artists like Shashank (flute), Jayanthi
Kumaresh (veena), Ganesh-Kumaresh (violin duet), Sudha
Raghunathan (vocal), M.S.Sheela (vocal), Aruna Sairam (vocal),
Nityashree (vocal). It will be of considerable help in our
planning if you can commit your continued membership for 2003 by
paying the membership dues as early as possible. This will also
help us in raising the fees needed for petitioning the IRS to
obtain a non-profit status for CCMA.
I express my sincere thanks for the continued support and
cooperation I have received from the members of the Executive
Committee. The Executive Committee solicits your opinions as to
how we can serve you better.
Ram Chandrasekar President
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