This year’s festival was dedicated to the memory of T. Balasaraswati, M.L. Vasanthakumari, and Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao.
Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, the largest Indian classical music festival outside of India, concluded on April 8 at Waetjen Auditorium on the campus of Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio.
Thousands of community members turned up to enjoy the Carnatic music concerts and Indian classical dance performances by eminent artists.
A music competition and a Bharathanatyam competition were also held as part of the festival. The Bharathanatyam competition witnessed the participation of dancers from across the globe.
The 41-year-old ceremony has generated considerable interest among a large student population passionate about Indian arts.
The festival is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This year’s festival was dedicated to the memory of T. Balasaraswati, M.L. Vasanthakumari, and Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao.
Started in 1978 as a small event with just one concert held in a church basement, the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival has grown into a 12-day festival with thousands of attendees appearing every year.
“We started with one program and a hundred people,” V.V. Sundaram, one of the founding members of the festival, told cleveland.com.
“Today, we have over 100 programs over 12 days with 12,000 people attending. We always start the Wednesday before Easter. Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday, and the following Monday are our busiest days. Opening weekend, we get about 4,000 people,” he added.
An Aradhana Committee consisting of music and dance enthusiasts spearhead the planning and organization of the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival. They work closely with various other Carnatic music organizations in the US and Canada to bring artists to Cleveland for the festival.
“The focus is to take classical art in its purest form, reach out to the larger community and see how we can be inclusive in everything we do,” said Sundaram.