And another year passes by....

And another year passes by – and I begin the new year with my entry into the blog world. Musically, 2008 began with a semi-classical concert of Annammacharya keerthanas- a fund raiser for Silicon Andhra –Jan 12th – 2008, my daughter Sruthi received her first offer of college admission that morning- and my mood was upbeat the whole day- capped it with a wonderful concert at the Bridgewater temple. Chari gave some great support on the keyboard and Subhash, as usual ,was in excellent form on the mridangam and tabla.

It is a true gift to meet passionate music lovers - Dr Devaiah and Dr Rudramma garu are two, I was lucky to know of and Viswamohan and I were fortunate enough to perform for them twice in Florida in February and later again in June.

This year was also the season of political fund raisers- I was invited to perform at AP Home Minister Shri Jana Reddy's felicitation , Mega star's Shri Chiranjeevi's Mega Prabhanjanam at NJ. Thanks to Lakshmi Duveneni and Vasu Reddy for these great opportunities


2008 also saw my third movie song being released- from the Telugu movie bharatmahaan.com-( http://cinefolks.com/telugu/AudioSongs/movie/Bharat+Mahan.com/# )
The movie is yet to be released but the music director Amos has done a great job- his tunes remind me of the nostalgic tunes of Rajan Nagendra and Ilayaraja. I find it hard to believe that I was actually able to make a hat-trick of playback singing from across the seven seas. Like they say – one thing leads to another but it all began with the one person who was responsible for my debut- Shanthi Kumar who gave me a break with Indian Beauty. Joy Calvin was the music director and we sort of hit it off. So when he got his second break, he offered me a song and that is how Nestama happened. During the recording sessions another new music director Amos, asked if I would record for his composition and that that was bharat mahaan.com happened. It is difficult to figure out what makes one tick – but I am glad I got to where I could. I will have some more intersing tit-bits on these recording in later editions.


This year, Ainkaran and I did some really enjoyable Tamil shows- the one at FETNA had Krish and Chinamayee. In spite of my earlier apprehensions about shows with celebrities from India, this one went remarkably smooth. For one, Krish is an old friend and co-singer but the major credit goes to Aingaran for his well-oiled organizational skills. The Utah show as another memorable one too, My husband and I also got to spend some time in picturesque Salt Lake City. The Chigaco temple fund raiser (Tamil and Telugu) with Ainkaran and Haranadha Raju was another great one. Both Raju and Ainkaran were simply awesome.

In July, I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from the ATA(American Telugu Association) officials, informing me about the conferment of the Vamsi International, Gayaka Ratna Award. Special thanks to all my Telugu speaking supporters and a special one to Damu Gedala garu.

In August, I had the wonderful opportunity to do a three-concert Telugu musical tour with Shri G.Anand and team. Like a ship that needs a good captain, any musical tour needs a great leader and Anand garu is one. Also had an opportunity to meet Chadra Teja from India and Sowjanya the SaReGaMapa semi finalist from New Jersey. Thanks to Prasad Thotakura garu and the Sripada family in San Antonio.


So what make a show tick- in my opinion it is a combination of three factors, great performance, great acoustics and sound system and a great audience, One show that had all three was the Ganeshotsav festival at the Philadelphia- it was an awesome feeling and the hangover stayed for days. Thanks to the team Viju on the keyboard, Brian on guitar, Ganesh on Dhol and drums, Subhash on tabla, Suresh and Santhosh and a special one to Mr. Shiv Kumar for making this happen.

December was the month of adventure…For the first time we went on a cruise- for the first time I was part of a Telugu music night on board the Carnival Sensation to Bahamas. Thanks to the Mazaa cruise Sudhakar, Durga Mantha and Vijeta for this enjoyable opportunity. Sruthi and Krishna also had a great time with Mani Sastry and Sastry(Mani’s other half) and Viswamohan. Viswa is one positive minded guy who can turn many a bad situation into a great one.

The year ended with a Malayalam show with Pandalam Balan. Balan is a veteran of stage shows, having done more than 5000 shows all over the world. He has this uncanny knack of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary- He understands the pulse of the audience and constantly steers the team towards a thunderous response from the audience. It was a great feeling to end the year with this show at Staten Island Malayalee Association.

2008 also got me some great well wishers Lakshmibai Kallakuri garu, Fathima Ji and Ismat ji.

Thanks to all my well wishers, patrons and fans- a special one to Mr. Yohanan Sankarathil for getting me back with Malayalee music lovers.

Thanks to all the musicians and technicicans for their great support-Subhash, Viju Jacob, Jomy, Vincent, Eugene,Shalu,Ganesh Jagtab,Arul Yagappan,Blesson,Sheno,Balu,Natesan,Brian,Clement and Sabu(Guitarist from Chicago).
To all the singers - Ainkaran, Haranadha Raju. Pandalam Balan, Viswamohan, Suresh Ramachandran, Santhosh, Rajeev, Baba Sontanya and Durga Mantha.
Wishing you all Happy 2009 !

Anitha Krishna