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 the flutist T.R. Mahalingam and nadaswaram artist Thirumeignanam Natarajasundaram Pillai whose centenary year is being celebrated 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.

Ticketed programs are marked in the schedule. See our ticketing page to for purchase information.

For those who cannot attend in person, the Festival will also be webcast by our partner, iCarnatic. Please check their web site for details.

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
10:00am – 10:30am Mangala Isai
Thirumeignanam Brothers T.K.R. Ayyappan & T.K.R. Meenakshisundaram (Nadaswaram)
Thirukkadaiyur G. Babu (Special thavil)
Nellore S. Nagendran (thavil)
10:45am – 11:30am Haasini Battiprolu of CA (Vocal)
Karthik Subramanian of TX (violin)
Saketh Prabha of PA (mridangam)
11:45am – 1:00pm Dharini Kalyanaraman of WA (Vocal)
C.S. Chinmayi (violin)
Akshanan Mayuran (mridangam)
1:15pm – 2:45pm Kala Rathna Dr Aishwarya Shankar (Vocal)
Srilakshmi Bhat (violin)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
Balaji Chandran of MN (ghatam)
3:00pm – 4:45pm Anahita & Apoorva (Vocal)
Kamalakiran Vinjamuri of VA (violin)
Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (mridangam)
Sowmiya J. Narayanan of VA (ghatam)
Thursday April 2, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Saketha Pantula of MD (Vocal)
Sudarshan Prasanna of GA (violin)
Rishabh Kalyan of WA (mridangam)
Sai Bharath (kanjira)
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 Venkateshwara 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
Co-presented by Dharini Kalyanaraman of WA & Anu Suresh of CA
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm U.E. Sinddhuja (Harikatha)
Tejas Murali of TX (violin)
Arnav Sudarshan of OR (mridangam)
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)
Praseed Balaji of MN (mridangam)
Sai Bharath (kanjira)
9:15am – 11:30pm Sangeetha Rathnakara N. Ravikiran (Chitraveena)
Pranav Kikkeri of TX (vocal support)
B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Yella Venkateshwara 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)
Abhinav Seetharaman of VA (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)
Medha Lalit Iyer (violin)
Kamryn McRory (cello)
SreeKrishna Pasumarthy (flute)
4:15pm – 4:45pm Ceremonial Procession and Mallari

Traditional Kolattam
by students of Shoba Narayan of OH, Nritya Gitanjali School of Dance
and students of Kalyani Veturi of OH, Sree Mayuri Dance Academy of Kuchipudi
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Sripradha Manikantan of CA (Vocal)
Sameth Sitaram of NJ (violin)
Srivatsan Srinivasan of CA (mridangam)
Saturday April 4, 2026     Wolstein Center, CSU
7:00am Puja and Worship
7:15am Mangala Isai
Thirumeignanam Brothers T.K.R. Ayyappan & T.K.R. Meenakshisundaram (Nadaswaram)
Thirukkadaiyur G. Babu (thavil)
Nellore S. Nagendran (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 Harikambodhi — A Tapestry of Grace
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 Book Release
108 Divya Desha Govinda Namavali composed and set to tune by Maheshwari Dixith
Complete Works of Mutthuswamy Dikshitar with word-for-word meanings in English, by Kalluri Satya Ramaprasad

Felicitation Function
Yella Venkateshwara 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
Thirumeignanam T.K.R. Ayyappan & T.K.R. Meenakshisundaram Sangeetha Kala Bhooshanam
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 Rathnakara Nagai R. Muralidharan (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
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
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Pragadeesh Shanmugharajah (Vocal)
Karthik P. Iyer of IL (violin)
Navneeth Gopinath of PA (mridangam)
Monday April 6, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Vivahapriya — Traditional & Original Wedding Compositions
Concept & Direction: Sangeetha Rathnakara N. Ravikiran

Musical Training & Content
Vanitha Suresh of WI, Dhruv S. Pathangi, Prameela Mandayam of WA, in partnership with Malladi Dr S. Ravikumar, Kala Rathna Dr K. Gayatri, and Acharyanet

Dance Choreography and Presentation
Nrithya Kala Sagaram Dr S. Divyasena, Meenakshi Ganesan of CA, Shwetha Nirmal of WA

featuring a team of 75 artists including
Lavanya Madhavan of OR, Manasa Suresh of CA, Neha Murthy of GA, Prameela Mandayam of WA, Pranav Kikkeri of TX, Dr Renuka Suryanarayanan, Vanitha Suresh of WI, Sanjay Suresh of WI, Varunika Raja of CA, Sindhu Naidu of IL, Preethi Sathyanarayanan of TX, Aadhya Sridharan of AZ, and Bhargav Sampath Kumaran of IL

Guest Artists
Kala Rathna K.S. Vishnudev, Vasudha Ravi, Dr V.K. Arun Kumar of IL, Kala Seva Mani Sriram N. Iyer of MN, Kala Seva Mani Vijay Ganesh of VA, Sunil Kumar
9:15am – 10:15am Rhea Rajesh of TX (Vocal)
Somanath Dhandibhotla of VA (violin)
Srikar Chittari of VA (mridangam)
Srikrishna Prasannan of OR (ghatam)
10:30am – 12:00pm Nrithya Rathnakara Roja Kannan (Bharathanatyam)
12:30pm – 2:00pm Swarathmika Srikanth (Vocal)
Srilakshmi Bhat (violin)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
Srikanth Duraiswamy of MI (kanjira)
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
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Indiana Brothers Suragh and Sarvagh Shrianandh (Vocal)
Visesh Uppoor of VA (violin)
Tarun Ravi of OR (mridangam)
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)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram V.V.S. Murari (violin)
Myan Sudharsanan of WA (mridangam)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Sri Sri Sisters Sriya Srinivas & Sreeja Srinivas (Vocal)
Laya Raghav of OH (violin)
Punnur Arvind Kaushik (mridangam)
Srikanth Duraiswamy of MI (kanjira)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Bhargavi Balasubramanian (Vocal)
Karthik P. Iyer of IL (violin)
Punnur Arvind Kaushik (mridangam)
Kala Rathna G. Chandrasekara Sharma (ghatam)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Anjali Prabhala of TX (Vocal)
Sumedha Mahesh of OH (violin)
Abhinav Arvind of IL (mridangam)
Wednesday April 8, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Villianur G. Lalitha of VA (Veena)
Punnur Arvind Kaushik (mridangam)
N. Sundar (morsing)
9:15am – 10:15am Improvisation in Indian Classical Music and Dance
A Lecture-Demonstration led by 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)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram Thanjavur K. Murugaboopathi (mridangam)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Arun Mahadevan of CA (Vocal)
C.S. Chinmayi (violin)
Akshanan Mayuran (mridangam)
N. Sundar (morsing)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Trichy K. Ramesh (Vocal)
Sangeetha Rathnakara Nagai R. Muralidharan (violin)
R. Sankaranarayanan of ON (mridangam)
Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.V. Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Sarada Karthik of TX (Vocal)
Sumedha Mahesh of OH (violin)
Krish Mohan of TX (mridangam)
Thursday April 9, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Srivathsa Pasumarthi of CA (Flute)
C.S. Chinmayi (violin)
Mauran Manogaran of ON (mridangam)
Sathya Ganesan of CA (ghatam)
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)
N. Guruprasad (ghatam)
1:00pm – 2:00pm Lakshmi Vijayaraghavan (Vocal)
Srilakshmi Bhat (violin)
Myan Sudharsanan of WA (mridangam)
Sai Bharath (kanjira)
2:15pm – 4:00pm Kumbakonam S. Sankararaman (Vocal)
B.V. Raghavendra Rao (violin)
Akshanan Mayuran (mridangam)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Tejasvi Subramanya of MD (Vocal)
Laya Raghav of OH (violin)
Aashrith Aravind of IL (mridangam)
Friday April 10, 2026     Drinko Recital Hall, CSU
8:00am – 9:00am Shakthi Mahima — A Thematic Dance Presentation
Concept by Sangeetha Kala Sagaram K.N. Shashikiran
Curated by Meenakshi Ganesan of CA
Choreography by Nrithya Kala Sagaram Dr S. Divyasena & Meenakshi Ganesan of CA

Orchestra
Swarathmika Srikanth (Vocal)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
Srilakshmi Bhat (violin)

Dance by students of Meenakshi Ganesan of CA, Gomathi Manoj of NJ, Preethi Sathyanarayanan of TX, Nirupamaa Chandrasekaran of NJ, Indhumadhi Gopalakrishnan of DE, Shobha Vasudevan of CA, Meenakshi Janarthanan of MN, Jyothi Heddese of TX
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 Rathnakara Nagai R. Muralidharan (violin)
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)
Ashwinn Balachandran of ON (mridangam)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Muthuswamy Dikshitar's Approach to Ragas
Lec-Dem by Dr V.K. Arun Kumar of IL
Karthik P. Iyer of IL (violin)
Dr Ajay Ravichandran of OH (mridangam)
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

Orchestra
Sriya Srinivas & Sreeja Srinivas (Vocal)
J.P. Suriya Nambisan (mridangam)
Srikar Satish of TX (flute)
Sanika Pande of CA (veena)

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)
Avaneesh Muralidharan of GA (violin)
M. Sivakumar (mridangam)
Ashok Gurumurthy of MI (kanjira)
2:15pm – 3:45pm Flute Ensemble
Presented by J.A. Jayant and his disciples
C.S. Chinmayi (violin)
Toronto B. Gowrishanker (mridangam)
Sunil Kumar (kanjira)
Comfort Inn Ballroom
10:00pm – 11:00pm Surya & Sathya Ganesan of CA (Vocal)
Lavanya Karthikeyan of NJ (violin)
Madhav Parthasarathy of CA (mridangam)
Sunday April 12, 2026     Waetjen Auditorium, CSU