About Anandabhairavi: Started in 1991, Anandabhairavi has conducted concerts, workshops, and seminars in New Jersey. Its primary thrust has been in

1. Promotion of local talent,
2. Preserving our musical tradition, and
3. Teaching.

In the year 2000, Anandabhairavi conducted a 6-week workshop on Manodharma or improvisation in Carnatic Music. The Local Artists Concert Series (with Ragam,-Tanam-Pallavi) was started in December 2000. Under this banner, concerts of Bhavani Prakash (Vocal and Veena), Radha Kalyan, Rajeswari Satish, Harish Neelakandan, Swaminathan (Sam) Natarajan, and Madurai R. Sundar have been organized. A half-hour workshop on music by Dr. Bhavani Prakash and Prakash Rao follows each of these concerts. It is hoped that the concert and workshop series will continue as a regular feature.

We have a unique staff - our family! We have been called the "Carnatic Von Trapp Family of NJ" (reference to the musical family in "The Sound of Music"). We have:

• Bhavani Prakash, a physician by profession and musician by passion. Bhavani is an "A" Grade artist of All India Radio. She is equally versatile on vocal, veena and venu. Her music quality has been acclaimed by top artists such as Dr. T. V. Gopalakrishnan, Dr. N. Ramani, Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan and Shashank. She teaches vocal, veena and flute. Many of Bhavani's students are concert level performers.
• Prakash Rao, senior disciple of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Vellore Ramabhadran. Prakash has over 37 years of experience on the mridangam. Since his first stage performance in 1980, Prakash has been a part of over 2000 concerts, dance (Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi) arangetrams and performances, ensembles, jugalbandhis and lecture-demonstrations. Also trained in vocal music, he teaches both mridangam and vocal music. Several of Prakash's students are now performing in their own right.
• Ananthapadmanabha Rao, a versatile musical prodigy. Ananth began his vocal lessons at a very young age and actually accompanied his parents for one song at the age of 3. He has participated in competitions since the age of 5, gave his first mini concert at the age of 7, a 45-minute concert at the age of 9 and a 4-hour arangetram at the age of 15. He is the winner of numerous prizes from prestigious competitions such as the Cleveland Aradhana, CMANA, UTSAV and IAPA. Ananth was a finalist in the Carnatic Idol USA in the first two years of the competition. Also trained in mridangam and veena, Ananth teaches vocal, mridangam and veena.
• Skandaprasad Rao, a budding genius. Skanda is trained in vocal, venu and mridangam. He, too, began his training early and started performing at a very young age. He has given performances on vocal and venu. Skanda, too, has won numerous awards at Cleveland and CMANA. He, too, was a finalist in Carnatic Idol USA. He teaches vocal, venu and mridangam.