Report: Koni Prakash Naik

Muscat, Mar 27: Spandana team is all set to organize yet another mega musical event 'Yeh Shaam Mastani' on Friday April 7 at the Ruby Ballroom, Hotel Crystal Suites in Wadi Kabir.

'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' singing super stars, Ram Kasar, Raksha Achar and Aishwarya Rangarajan will be on their toes to mesmerize the Muscat audience with their superb singing talent.

This time, the event will encompass a homogenous confluence of instrumental fusion music, evergreen melodious film songs in Kannada and Hindi, dazzling dance performances and a presentation of 'Retro-to-Metro' songs. It will certainly be one of a kind. The musical convergence of these artistes in an aesthetic ambience over a lavish dinner will be a unique endeavour and effort of Spandana Team.

In the past four to five years, the zeal and interest elicited by them through their various programmes like 'Sangeeta Lahari', 'Yaadon Ki Baraat', 'Raag Anuraag' and 'Shaam-e-Sargam' has evoked passion for melodious music among music lovers of Oman.

Profile of the artistes
Raksha started singing at the age of two and learnt music under the tutelage of her mother Bharathi Ananthachar. She has now emerged as a versatile vocalist and is trained to perfection. She has participated in more than six TV Reality Shows in Kannada, namely Yede Tumbi Haaduvenu, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs-2, Saptha Swara, Super Stars, Star Singer, Yede Tumbi Haaduvenu (seniors) and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Season-11. She was awarded the title 'Sangeetha KalaaSharadhe” at the age of 12 in Kumuta, Makkala Mane. Raksha is currently pursuing her bachelor degree in Music at Bangalore University.

Raksha started working as a playback singer in 2007 with Naadha Bramha Hamsalekha, Arjun Janya (2012) V. Harikrishna (2015), Charan Raj (2016) and Ravi Basrur (2016). She has rendered her voice as a playback singer in the films Meera Madhava Raghava, Angaaraka, Yen Life Idu, Lakshmana, DanaaKaayoonu, Kirik Party, Pushpaka Vimaana-2, Uppu Huli Khaara, Life 360 and Rupaayi. Also, worked as a dubbing artiste in three Kannada movies for lead roles.

Aishwarya Rangarajan
Aishwarya Rangarajan is a versatile artiste. She began her journey in music at the age of 4. Initially, she learned Karnatic classical music from Usha Jagadrakshakan.
She is currently learning Karnatic classical music, Veena and light music from Vidhwan Suchethan Rangaswami. She is also a B-grade Akashavani artist and has rendered
several devotional songs and light music compositions. Apart from Karnatic classical music, she is equally good in western music.

Aishwarya has participated in some of the very popular television reality shows like 'Ede Thumbi Haaduvenu', 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs', 'Voice of Bengaluru' and has been the runner-up in all these shows. She is also the second runner up in the most popular singing Reality Show 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Season - 11' which was judged by the leading playback singers and music directors - Arjun Janya, Rajesh Krishnan and Vijay Prakash.

Aishwarya has also worked with a lot of renowned musicians like N S Prasad, Veena Varuni and so on. She has sung for Nadha Brahma Hamsalekha, Arjun Janya and Raghu Dixit, few of the very popular and acclaimed music directors of Sandalwood.

She has rendered her voice in title tracks for TV serials like Ganga, Vaarasdaara which air on popular Kannada TV channels. She has also performed in Thurupathi. To cap it all, Aishwarya has already done playback singing for several Kannada movies, to name a few, Kaplana-2, Happy New Year, Duniya-2 and is turning out to be a promising singing star in Sandalwood and other film industries.

Shreeram Kasar
Is Zee Kannada SA RE GA MA PA Season - II’s first runner up. He is titled 'Junior SPB' by Kallaiyya Ajja, Pandit Puttaraj Gawaigala Aashrama Gadag. He has performed more than 1000 stage shows across Karnataka and awarded Star of Uttar Karnataka, Star of Dharwad, Start of Belgavi. He was also the winner of HadinaBandi singing show organized by Kasturi channel.

He was born on April 23, in Gadag district, Gajendragada. He completed his BMusic from Karnataka University Dharwad and Master’s in music from Mysore University and presently pursuing Phd in music from Dharwad University.

In the 12 years of his musical journey, he has been trained by many master minds of music in Hindustani Classical, Karnatic and other forms of music, one of them being Pandit Maniprasad Guruji, a Padma Bhushana awardee, Dr GangubaiHanagal Gurukul, Dharwad. He has been practicing Hindustani classical music vocal under the tutelage of his gurus for more than five years. He has also sung devotional songs for Jain Digambar Jangalwale Baba and his audio CDs released all over North Karnataka were a
huge hit.

He is widely recognized all over Karnataka from a singing reality show organized by Zee Kannada (SA RE GA MA PA Season - II), where he secured runner up trophy. He has been selected as a jury member in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Season - 12. He recently sang for magical music composer Arjun Janya, for the film 'Naane Next CM' starring sandalwood star Ragini Divedi and also for the film 'Cheluvina Chandira' music directed by Shivasapthami. Many songs are in the recording stage.

He has performed in many stage shows organized by Sumana Art Center and the Yuva Chethana Prathibimba Cultural Events in Gayana Samaj and Kalasoudha. He is comfortable with all kinds of music, be it western, filmy, folk or classical.

Sakshi Baghawat, who has participated in Zee Kannada 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Little Champs' in 2016, and is a well trained singer with a melodious voice and Sumana Shashidhar, another well trained singer with her inimitable voice, will join the lead singers to enthrall the audience.

Spandana is a group formed in 2011 with a strong conviction and a striking message 'together we can make a difference'. During the past five to six years Spandana has tried its best to promote Indian art and culture through musical shows, thereby providing around 15 to 20 budding artistes an international platform to perform in Muscat.

The logo too, depicts Spandana’s vision and its humble endeavour to embark on its fifth milestone 'Yeh Shaam Mastani'. Spandana means emotional heartbeat or vibration to reach out, which essentially is within every human being and can be roused from within.

Spandana Muscat has already carved a niche in Muscat by organizing such high quality musical programmes which have been appreciated by one and all. Spandana team is very proud and honoured that its last four musical extravaganzas have attracted a huge number of audiences and have kept music lovers spellbound for more than four hours, which is a record.

Spandana Muscat is highly grateful to all its esteemed sponsors, well-wishers and audience for their unstinting encouragement and overwhelmingly generous support without which it would not have been possible to organize such programmes and also to carry on with its social message 'together we can make a difference'.

Spandana team comprises of Koni Prakash Naik (convenor), Riyaz Ahmed (co-convenor), Nagesh Shetty Kinnigoly, Ramanand Kunder, Karunakar Rao, Zuber K S and Umesh Buntwal. Spandana thanks Ramesh Shettigar, Jaya Ramesh Shettigar and Yoganand Holalkere, who were also part of Spandana Committee, for their immense contributions.