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Barbara Beck
Barbara was first exposed to and
inspired by Indian classical music in 1981, while attending
Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She discovered
Ragamala in 1988, and has been attending Ragamala concerts ever
since. Barbara learned Sitar technique briefly from two
extraordinary teachers, Gareth Lewis and Shujaat Khan. Her
travels have taken her to India three times, very specifically
to attend festivals of music in Delhi and Chennai. After
sitting on the Ragamala Board (quite literally according to her)
for several years, she served as Ragamala's logistics
coordinator in 2006. This year, she is going to be taking
over as Treasurer for the organization. Barbara has done
accounting work, mostly for various non-profit organizations,
for the last ten years. She is presently employed at the
Seattle Art Museum. |
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Shantha Benegal
Shantha
Benegal is actively involved with the promotion of performing
arts from South Asia. She is a singer and teacher. She studied
Dhrupad from Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, Khayal from Pt. Murli
Manohar Shukla and Ustad Yunus Hussain Khan. Her deep interest
in Thumri, Dadra, Qawwali and Folk music, led to study with such
visiting artists to Seattle as Urmila Nagar, Sabri Khan, Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan and Shujaat Khan. Shantha served as a publicist
in the University of Washington School of Music for 18 years,
and has also presented a program titled Music of India on KRAB-FM
for 13 years. She is currently on the board of Leela
Kathak Dancers and Northwest Puppet Center. |
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Ramesh Gangolli
Musician, musicologist,
mathematician and educator, Ramesh Gangolli has for decades been
a pillar of the musical scene in Seattle, where he has taught
mathematics as well as music at the University of Washington. He
is also a primary motive force behind Ragamala, the organization
which has organized performances of Indian classical music and
dance in Seattle for over two decades. Prof Gangolli
started his initial training with Sharad Gadre in Seattle. Later
he trained as a vocalist under the guidance of several
well-known vocalists of India, including Late Pt. K.G. Ginde and
Pt. Dinkar Kaikini of the Agra gharana. He has a deep interest
in various compositions of Agra Gharana, especially by Pt. S.N.
Ratanjankar and has several to his own credit. He has also been
engaged in the study of the texts of the oral repertoire of the
hereditary lineages of musicians of North India. He has given a
number of recitals and lecture demonstrations in the US and in
India relating to his work. He also teaches Indian music in the
Ethnomusicology Program in the School of Music at the University
of Washington. A mathematician by profession, Prof
Gangolli obtained his doctoral degree from MIT and started
teaching at the University of Washington since 1962. He is
currently a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and an Adjunct
Professor of Music at UW. |
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Photo Courtesy of Eswar Somasekhar |
Vibhavaree Gargeya
Vibhavaree Gargeya served on Ragamala's board in 2006-2007. She
currently maintains Ragamala's volunteers' Yahoo group, is
coordinator for Fundfest, Ragamala's annual fund raising and
membership drive, and picks up various tasks as needed.
Vibhavaree is also active as a volunteer for Asha for
Education and works at
Cisco Systems |
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Chris (left) and Pepsi the
Camel (right) on safari outside Jaisalmer |
Chris
Grantham
A transplant from New Jersey, one of the first things Chris
did in 1992 upon moving to Seattle was to join Ragamala, having
heard of it from Robert Browning, the president of New York
City's World Music Institute, where he attended concerts and
volunteered a couple of times in 1991-2. A volunteer in various
small ways since the mid/late 90s, he was invited to join the
Ragamala Board in 2003. Initially helping with the email list
and with stage setup and teardown, he now serves in various
committees. As an avid listener of Classical Indian music since
the mid-80s, when he would occaisionally hear Ravi Shankar and
others on John Schaefer's eclectic New Sounds radio
program on WNYC, he jumped at the chance to experience his
first live Indian concert by Ravi and Shubo Shankar in 1989 at
the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he attended
school at U of R, majoring in physics. His enthusiasm for Indian
Classical music has only grown since. He started dabbling in
tabla in 1994 with Tor Dietrichson, took a UW class from Akram
Khan thereafter, and is currently a student of Vishal Nagar. In
2001, he was graciously invited to spend several months with the
Nagar family in Delhi learning tabla, but did manage to tear
himself away from riyaaz long enough to see some small part of
India as a regular tourist. He hopes to return there soon. At
this time a part-time student updating his IT credentials, he
currently seeks opportunities in Systems/Network Administration. |
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Raman Iyer
Brought up in a musical environment, Raman Iyer has
shown a deep interest in music and Violin in particular
at a very early age. He began learning violin at the age
of six under the tutelage of Sri. Nedumangad Shivanandan
for nearly 10 years. Simultaneously he underwent vocal
training primarily from his parents, Smt. Valli and Sri.
Mahadeva Iyer. He underwent brief vocal training with
Sri. Ochira Balakrishnan as well. The turning point in his
musical career came when he was fortunate to have a
short stint with the violin virtuoso, Dr. L. Subramaniam
during the mid-nineties. This has immensely helped Raman
to refine his bowing and fingering techniques. With
strong foundation in violin technique and music in
general, Raman strives to create his own unique style
imbibing the best from great masters. He continues to
pursue his musical aesthetics and training and is
currently guided by Smt. Sreevidhya Chandramouli, the
great grand daughter of the Veena Maestro, Karaikudi
Subbarama Iyer. |
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Bharati Khandekar
Bharati Khandekar
is an accomplished athlete who represented the State of
Maharashtra nationally in softball, badminton and cricket.
As a founder member of the Seattle Maharashtra Mandal, she has
served as a member of the Executive Committee several times, and
at present is a Vice President for SMM. Bharati is also
actively involved in the efforts to organize the Brihan
Maharashtra Mandal convention in Seattle in 2007, and serves as
the Chairperson of the Registration Committee. Bharati and
her husband Mohan have been an integral part of Ragamala's
family for a very long time, and as a team, are the first,
smiling faces who greet patrons at the front desk at Ragamala
events. Bharati holds a bachelors degree in Economics, and
worked as a banker at US Bank. She is presently employed
at the Northshore School District, where she is actively
involved with the local union. She continues to utilize
her athletic skills as a member of the coaching staff of the
fast pitch softball team at Bothell High School. |
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Mohan Khandekar
Music has been Mohan’s passion
since his childhood. For a short period of time he took
sitar lessons from Ustad Usman Khan while in Pune, and
has continued his involvement in music in one form or
other ever since. Mohan is an architect by profession
and enjoys all kinds of music. He is a self-taught
harmonium player and has accompanied local vocalists
such as Sharad Gadre, Ramesh Gangolli and Kumud Nagarkar
in concerts. He has also participated in lecture
demonstration workshops in Vancouver B. C., Victoria, B.
C., Portland and Seattle. Mohan has been an
integral part of Ragamala's operations for several years
now, and presently serves are Ragamala's treasurer.
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Beauty and the Beast (not in that
order!):
Arijit (left) & his niece Tithi (right).
Photo courtesy of Manoj Biswas |
Arijit Mahalanabis
After a brief career as an engineer, Arijit turned to music
full-time in 2005. Aside from his duties at Ragamala, Arijit is
a graduate student in the
Department of Ethnomusicology at the
University of Washington.
He is also an adjunct member of the faculty at the
Evergreen State College
in Olympia, WA. He considers himself a student of three very
prominent members of the "Seattle Gharana" -
Prof. Ramesh
Gangolli,
Mrs.
Shantha Benegal and
Dr. Sharad
Gadre. He has also received training in Dagar Bani
Dhrupad from Pt. Uday Bhawalkar. Although his primary
interest is Dhrupad and Dhamar, he practices Khayal, and Thumri
as well. Arijit presently serves as the president of
Ragamala, and is on the
board of FASIS. He also
co-chaired the first
Utsav, Seattle's annual celebration of the performing arts
of South Asia in 2004. Finally, although he doesn't use
them anymore, he holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science
and a bachelors degree in Computational Mathematics from Penn
State University, and a masters in Computer Science from
University of Southern California. |
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Nandita
Parikh An ardent
supporter of Ragamala, Nandita Parikh is instrumental in making
hospitality arrangements and providing refreshments to visiting
artists on concert day. Nandita studies music at the
Sadhana School of Arts in Bellevue, and is also a student and
practitioner of Pranayam and Yoga. A zealous and feared
competitor in her tennis league, Nandita is a dedicated and
loving mother and wife. |
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Joyce Paul
Joyce Paul is an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer who believes
that dance is a wonderful medium that can transport you to a
level of consciousness that is difficult to reach otherwise.
She works hard to ensure that the essence of dance and its
unseen ramifications are experienced by her students and
co-dancers. Her knowledge of Exercise Physiology and the human
body in general give her classes a unique twist. Her basic
knowledge of Ballet and Jazz help her work on competitive
analysis between art forms and how the body reacts to different
stress movements. Joyce had the pleasure of having
Padmashri Leela Samson as her guru. Under Leela Akka she learnt
the rigour, vitality and precision that the Kalakshetra school
had to offer. She also had the privilege of spending time at
Kalaskhetra with teachers like Janardhanan Sir and Thomas Sir
and Krishnamurthy Sir. Her dancing took a different flavour when
she started training with the eminent Prof C.V. Chandrashekhar
and his daughters Chitra and Manjari Chandrashekhar. She has
performed extensively in India and venues outside India.
After moving to Seattle, WA in 2001, Joyce has been performing
regularly for the Northwest Folklife festival, Seattle Art
Museum, Bellevue Community College and other art organizations.
She is keen on educating the local community about the rich and
varied heritage of India. On this end, she is working on a
project with the local schools. Joyce has a unique
curriculum for her workshops - one that incorporates
kinesiology, strength and fitness, yoga (esp. paranayama),
theatre, lateral thinking and impromptu interpretations of
non-traditional dance concepts. |
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Lalitha
Raman A
full-time rasika of both Hindustani and Carnatic music, Lalitha
was a software design engineer in a past life, having earned
degrees from The Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore and
the University of Washington. She now spends most of her free
time learning Khayal music from Dr. Sharad Gadre and tabla from
Annie Penta. She also moonlights as a cricket player for a local
league, loves trivia, solving cryptic crosswords and hanging out
with her six year-old son. |
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Estela Raychaudhuri
Estela
Raychaudhuri has loved all types of music and dance since she
was a child. She is particularly fond of Indian classical
dance. She is interested in educating young people about Indian
classical music and dance with the goal of making it more
approachable and is currently volunteering with Ragamala in its
Outreach Program. Estela is an engineer and co-founder of a
local medical diagnostic company. She is married with three
children. |
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