Schedule of Events

The Festival is, as usual, scheduled around the Easter holiday. For 2026, the festival will start on Wednesday April 1st and continue until Sunday April 12th, 2026.

The 2026 Festival is dedicated to the memory of T.R. Mahalingam, whose centenary year is being celbrated this year. It is also dedicated to the memory of Nedunuri Krishnamurthy.

The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

Our lineup of artists and concert schedule is still in the process of being finalized. Please check back here for updates.

Wednesday April 1, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
9:00am – 9:30am Mangala Isai
Thirumeignanam Brothers T.K.R. Ayyappan & T.K.R. Meenakshisundaram (Nadaswaram)
Thirukkadaiyur G. Babu (Special thavil)
Nellore S. Nagendran (thavil)
9:45am – 10:30am Haasini Battiprolu of CA (Vocal)
10:45am – 12:00pm Dharini Kalyanaraman of WA (Vocal)
12:30pm – 2:00pm Kala Rathna Aishwarya Shankar (Vocal)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Anahita & Apoorva (Vocal)
Kamalakiran Vinjamuri of VA (violin)
Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (mridangam)
Sowmiya J. Narayanan of VA (ghatam)
4:15pm – 6:45pm Carnatica Brothers Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.N. Shashikiran & P. Ganesh (Vocal)
Sangeetha Rathnakara Nagai R. Muralidharan (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi (mridangam)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
7:00pm – 9:30pm Thirumeignanam Brothers T.K.R. Ayyappan & T.K.R. Meenakshisundaram (Nadaswaram)
Thirukkadaiyur G. Babu (Special Thavil)
Nellore S. Nagendran (Thavil)
Thursday April 2, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Saketha Pantula of MD (Vocal)
9:30am – 10:30am Veena Pusthaka Dharini
A presentation by disciples of Tiruvarur S. Girish
11:00am – 12:00pm Sreerama Vibhakthi krithis of Muthuswamy Dikshitar
by Amrithavarshini Academy (Students of Acharya Rathnakara Sherthalai Dr K.N. Renganatha Sharma and Dr Mohana Sharma)
12:45pm – 1:45pm Mridanga Tarangam
A talavadyam program conceptualized by Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Yella Venkateswara Rao
Coordinated by Dr Ravi Balasubramanian of OR, Srinath Balasubramanian of CA, Rama Krishna Nethi
2:15pm – 4:00pm Sangeetha Rathnakara Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan Presents
Thakadhimi thakita — Season 8
"Muruganin Perumai" — A Grand Percussion Ensemble — A confluence of rhythm, melody, and dance

Sangeetha Rathnakara Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan (Mridangam & konnakkol)
B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin)
Kala Rathna Abilash Giriprasad (vocal)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
N. Sundar (morsing & tabla)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram R. Thiagarajan (flute)

Choreography by Padmini Radhakrishnan and Meenakshi Ganesan of CA

Bharathanatyam
Students of Meenakshi Ganesan of CA, Akila Rao of CA, Meenakshi Vedantham of CA, Vaishali Ramachandran of CA, Snigdha Venkataramani of CA, Abhirami Shankar of CA, Srividya Chellappan of WA, Shwetha Nirmal of WA, Yamini Varadarajulu of WA, Preetha Subramanyan of GA, Gayathri Sudhakar of GA, Gomathi Manoj of NJ, Ramya Shankaran of NJ, Akila Subramanyam of VA, Shanthi Ashok of VA, Sudha Krishnamurthy of VA, Vimina Bagavath of IN, Aishwarya Chakravarthy of CT, Pragnya Bidarkare Prakash of IA, Preethi Sathyanarayanan of TX, Prasanna Jeer of IL

Kuchipudi
Students of Madhuri Kishore of CA, Sunita Pendekanti of CA
4:15pm – 5:15pm Shiva Bhakti Vilasam
Curated & Presented by Bhargavi Balasubramanian
5:30pm – 7:15pm Sunil R. Gargyan (Vocal)
R. Raghul (violin)
Sai Raghavan (mridangam)
Nerkunam Dr S. Sankar (kanjira)
8:00pm – 9:30pm Nrithya Rathnakara Narthaki Nataraj (Bharathanatyam)
Shakthi Bhaskar (Concept & Coordination)

Orchestra
Nrithya Rathnakara Roja Kannan (Nattuvangam)
Himaja Samraj (Vocal)
Sangeetha Rathnakara R. Thiagarajan (Flute)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm U.E. Sinddhuja (Harikatha)
Friday April 3, 2026     Cleveland State University & Crowne Plaza Playhouse Square
9:00am – 5:00pm Music Competition
Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am 2025 Concert Competition Winner
Madhura Sriram of TX (Vocal)
Sanjith Narayanan of NC (violin)
Sai Bharath (kanjira)
9:15am – 11:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara N. Ravikiran (Chitraveena)
Pranav Kikkeri of TX (vocal support)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Delhi P. Sunder Rajan (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Yella Venkateswara Rao (mridangam)
Dr Ravi Balasubramanian of OR (ghatam)
11:45am – 12:45pm 2025 Advanced Pallavi Competition Winner
Vijayanti Pappu of AZ (Veena)
Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (mridangam)
Sowmiya J. Narayanan of VA (ghatam)
1:00pm – 2:30pm Kala Rathna Kruthi Vittal (Vocal)
Kala Rathna Kamalakiran Vinjamuri of VA (violin)
Ethirajan Ramanujan of MN (mridangam)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
3:00pm – 4:00pm Carnatic-Jazz Collaboration by INfusion
Kala Seva Mani Prof. Leo Coach (piano)
Joe Culley (tabla)
Lalit Subramanian (vocal & mridangam)
Reed Simon (violin)
Kamryn McRory (cello)
4:15pm – 4:45pm Ceremonial Procession and Mallari

Traditional Kolattam
by students of Nritya Gitanjali, OH
5:00pm – 7:00pm Jugalbandhi
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram V.V.S. Murari (Violin)
Ashwani Shankar (Shehnai)
Sai Giridhar (mridangam)
Amit Kavthekar (tabla)
7:30pm – 9:30pm Nrithya Kala Sagaram Dr S. Divyasena (Bharathanatyam)
and her disciples
Upanisha Kannan (Bharathanatyam)
Shabin Bright (Bharathanatyam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Sripradha Manikantan of CA (Vocal)
Sameth Sitaram of NJ (violin)
Saturday April 4, 2026     Wolstein Center, CSU
7:00am Puja and Worship
7:15am Mangala Isai
Sangeetha Rathnakara Kasim Subhan & Babu Subhan (Nadaswaram)
M. Vijay Kumar (thavil)
K. Manikandan (thavil)
8:00am – 8:45am Bhajans by Children
9:00am – 10:45am Pancharathna Krithis — Group singing of Thyagaraja's five greatest compositions
11:15am – 12:15pm The Sishyakulam Epic Choir
Conceptualized by Sangeetha Rathnakara Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan, this ensemble brings together musicians from across North America for the grandest stage event in Carnatic music
Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
12:30pm – 1:30pm Concept and Presentation by Jay Shankar Balan of MI
1:45pm – 3:30pm Kala Rathna K. Bharat Sundar (Vocal)
Sruti Sarathy of CA (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Neyveli R. Narayanan (mridangam)
Dr Ravi Balasubramanian of OR (ghatam)
4:00pm – 6:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara Ramnad V. Raghavan Memorial Concert
Sustaining Sampradaya — Tribute to T.R. Mahalingam
A concert by the torch-bearers of the Cleveland Festival
6:45pm – 7:30pm Felicitation Function
Yella Venkateswara Rao Dr M. Balamuralikrishna Memorial Award
Shankar Ramachandran of OH Manni Tirumalchariar Memorial Award
Manasa Suresh of CA P.S. Narayanaswamy Memorial Award
R. Thiagarajan Sangeetha Rathnakara
Roja Kannan Nrithya Rathnakara
Subhash Vinjamuri of VA Acharya Rathnakara
Malladi Suri Babu Sangeetha Kala Sagaram
Shiv Shivaraman of MI Seva Rathna
Vijay Ganesh of VA Kala Seva Mani
Sunanda Narayanan of MA Nrithya Seva Mani
Vidya Kalyanaraman Kala Rathna
Bhavya Kumaran of NY Kala Rathna
Dr Ravi Balasubramanian of OR Prof. T.R. Subrahmanyam Award
Shanti Raghavan of OH Dr G. Venkatadri Memorial Award
Punnur Arvind Kaushik Meera & T.K. Subramaniam Memorial Award
7:45pm – 9:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan (Vocal)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Delhi P. Sunder Rajan (violin)
Sangeetha Rathnakara Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan (mridangam)
Kala Seva Mani Dr David Nelson of CT (mridangam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Yuva Sangeeta Seva
Anirudh Raja of CA (Vocal)
Sanjay Suresh of WI (violin)
Akshay Venkatesan of CA (mridangam)
Sunday April 5, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Carnatic Symphony
Presented by Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.N. Shashikiran
9:15am – 10:15am Manodharmamum Kalpita Sangeethamum
A thematic presentation by North American students
Presented by Sangeetha Rathnakara Papanasam Ashok Ramani
10:30am – 1:00pm Sangeetha Rathnakara Dr S. Sowmya (Vocal)
Kala Rathna Kamalakiran Vinjamuri of VA (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Neyveli R. Narayanan (mridangam)
Kala Rathna G. Chandrasekara Sharma (ghatam)
1:15pm – 2:15pm Music Competition Prize Distribution
2:45pm – 3:45pm Veena Ganam
presented by Naadharasa Center for Music
Curated by Nirmala Rajasekar of MN
4:15pm – 5:15pm Bhakti Vijayam
presented by Gayatri Fine Arts Global
Curated by Sangeetha Kala Sagaram P. Ganesh
5:45pm – 7:45pm Kala Rathna K.S. Vishnudev (Vocal)
B. Ananthakrishnan (violin)
Sangeetha Rathnakara Trichy Sankaran (mridangam)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
8:00pm – 9:30pm Kala Rathna Medha Hari (Bharathanatyam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Pragadeesh Shanmugharajah (Vocal)
Monday April 6, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Vivahapriya — Traditional & Original Compositions
Concept, Coordination, & Direction: Vanitha Suresh of WI, Arohana Arts Academy
9:15am – 10:15am Rhea Rajesh of TX (Vocal)
Sai Bharath (kanjira)
10:30am – 12:00pm Nrithya Rathnakara Roja Kannan (Bharathanatyam)
12:30pm – 2:00pm Swarathmika Srikanth (Vocal)
Srilakshmi Bhat (violin)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
N. Sundar (morsing)
2:15pm – 4:00pm S. Adithyanarayanan (Vocal)
Sruti Sarathy of CA (violin)
Vinod Seetharaman of MI (mridangam)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
4:30pm – 7:00pm Sustaining Sampradaya — Tribute to Nedunuri Krishnamurthy
A concert by the torch-bearers of the Cleveland Festival
7:30pm – 9:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara Papanasam Ashok Ramani (Vocal)
Sangeetha Rathnakara Nagai R. Muralidharan (violin)
Ethirajan Ramanujan of MN (mridangam)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Indiana Brothers Suragh and Sarvagh Shrianandh (Vocal)
Tuesday April 7, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Trishakthi
A thematic presentation conducted by R. Suryaprakash
9:15am – 10:15am Sri Vaikunta Vaibhavam
A thematic group presentation curated by Chithra Vaidyanathan, Dhivyadhwani School of Music, AZ
10:30am – 12:30pm Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Malladi Suri Babu (Vocal)
Malladi Ravikumar (vocal support)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram V.V.S. Murari (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Yella Venkateswara Rao (mridangam)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Sri Sri Sisters Sriya Srinivas & Sreeja Srinivas (Vocal)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Bhargavi Balasubramanian (Vocal)
Sanjay Suresh of WI (violin)
Punnur Arvind Kaushik (mridangam)
4:15pm – 6:45pm Nirmala Rajasekar of MN (Veena)
B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi (mridangam)
N. Sundar (morsing)
7:00pm – 9:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara R. Thiagarajan (Flute)
Sruti Sarathy of CA (violin)
B. Sivaraman (mridangam)
K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Anjali Prabhala of TX (Vocal)
Wednesday April 8, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Villianur G. Lalitha of VA (Veena)
9:15am – 10:15am Lecture-Demonstration
Sangeetha Rathnakara Dr S. Sowmya
Lakshmi Vijayaraghavan (Vocal)
Kala Rathna Medha Hari (Bharathanatyam)
10:30am – 12:30pm Sangeetha Kala Sagaram V.K. Manimaran (Vocal)
Sruti Sarathy of CA (violin)
B. Sivaraman (mridangam)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Himaja Samraj (Vocal)
N. Sundar (morsing)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Trichy K. Ramesh (Vocal)
Dr D. Badrinarayanan (violin)
R. Sankaranarayanan of ON (mridangam)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
4:15pm – 6:45pm Kala Rathna Vidya Kalyanaraman (Vocal)
B. Ananthakrishnan (violin)
Kala Seva Mani Vijay Ganesh of VA (mridangam)
Kala Rathna G. Chandrasekara Sharma (ghatam)
7:00pm – 9:30pm R. Suryaprakash (Vocal)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram V.V.S. Murari (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi (mridangam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Sarada Karthik of TX (Vocal)
Thursday April 9, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Veena-Violin-Venu Trio
Ashwin Anand of ON (Veena)
Maiyuran Gireedharan (Violin)
Vishnu Kandanchatha (Flute)
9:15am – 10:15am Group Bharathanatyam presentation by
Nrithyapooja Dance Academy, students of Kala Rathna Pooja Kumar Shyam of MI
10:30am – 12:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara Nagai R. Muralidharan & Dr D. Badrinarayanan (Violin)
Sangeetha Rathnakara Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan (mridangam)
Akshanan Mayuran (mridangam)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Lakshmi Vijayaraghavan (Vocal)
Sai Bharath (kanjira)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Kumbakonam S. Sankararaman (Vocal)
B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
4:15pm – 6:45pm Tiruvarur S. Girish (Vocal)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram V.V.S. Murari (violin)
R. Sankaranarayanan of ON (mridangam)
7:00pm – 9:30pm Acharya Rathnakara Shertalai Dr K.N. Renganatha Sharma (Vocal)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Vaishaly Yogarajan (Vocal)
Friday April 10, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Tri-Shakthi
9:15am – 10:15am Arunagiri Aruliya Thiruppugazh — Arpudha Sthalangalum Ariya Thaalangalum
by the North America Thiruppugazh Anbargal, Students of "Guruji" A.S. Raghavan
led by Mahalakshmi Krishnan of TX
10:30am – 12:30pm Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Delhi P. Sunder Rajan (Vocal)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Neyveli R. Narayanan (mridangam)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Oothukadu Ratnamala
A dance presentation by New Jersey Natyasangamam

Students of Anuradha Renganathan of NJ, Aparna Ram of NJ, Chitra Ramaswamy of NJ, Lavanya Mahadevan of NJ, Rubina Sudarman of NJ, Shobita Arun of NJ, Rekha Srinivasan of NJ, Sushama Shreyas of NJ, Divya Chandrashekar of NJ, Akila Subramanyam of VA
2:30pm – 4:00pm Kala Rathna Akshay Padmanabhan (Vocal)
Vishal Sowmyan of NJ (violin)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
4:30pm – 6:00pm Margam Workshop Performance
6:30pm – 7:30pm 2025 Choreography Competition Winner
Divya Rajan of MA (Bharathanatyam)
8:00pm – 9:30pm Vidhya Subramaniam (Bharathanatyam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Tejasvi Subramanya of MD (Vocal)
Saturday April 11, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:30am – 9:30am Gita Sangita — Teachings of the Bhagavad Gita through Carnatic compositions
Conceptualized & Presented by Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Delhi P. Sunder Rajan and Divya Ramesh of CA
10:00am – 12:30pm Meenakshi Pancharathnam
A dance-drama composed by Dr Rukmini Ramani

Dance by students of Suba Parmar, Vidya Sankaranarayanan, Sree Lakshmanan, Indhumadhi Gopalakrishnan, Aparna Ram, and Lavanya Mahadevan
1:00pm – 2:00pm Odhuvar
M. Muthukumaran & C. Sivakumar (Vocal)
M. Sivakumar (mridangam)
2:15pm – 3:45pm Flute Ensemble
Presented by J.A. Jayant and his disciples
4:15pm – 6:00pm Lokabhiramam Shri Ramam
A Dance Ballet presented by the Trinity Center of Music (CA)
Dance Choreography by Vidya Krishnan of CA
Music by Anuradha Sridhar of CA
6:15pm – 7:15pm 2025 Performance Competition Winner
Anjali Gowri Talluru of PA (Bharathanatyam)
7:30pm – 9:30pm Dvayam
Composer: Kala Ratha K. Bharat Sundar
Choreographers: Kala Rathna Aishwarya Balasubramanian of NH & Kala Rathna Navia Natarajan

Orchestra
S. Adithyanarayanan (Vocal)
Manasa Suresh of CA (Vocal)
Ramya Ramachandran of ON (Vocal)
Punnur Arvind Kaushik (mridangam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Surya & Sathya Ganesan of CA (Vocal)
Lavanya Karthikeyan of NJ (violin)
Sunday April 12, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:30am – 3:00pm Dance Competition — Advanced Categories
3:00pm – 3:30pm Dance Competition Prize Distribution
3:30pm – 5:30pm Margam Workshop Performance