N. Vijaya - President

Vijaya Nagarajan is a Disciple of Smt. D.K. Pattammal. She is an all India Radio artist for the past 40 years. She had performed Live /Recording concerts in Doordarshan, Chennai. She even released audiocassettes with titled SAI SUMANJALI Vol.1 Bhajans on Shri. Sai Baba and other cassettes release are in pipeline. She is Training students on Carnatic Vocal Music from Basic to Post-Graduate levels and also organizes to participate students in various competitions and audition programme.

Professional Titles

• Sangeetha Sironmani from University of Delhi, Delhi
• Sangeetha Vidhwan from Central College of Carnatic Music, Madras
• Gana Kokila from Swami Sivananda Ashram Trust, Rishikesh.

S. Nithya - Vice-President

Nithya Subramaniyan is an eldest daughter of Sri Late A.V. Venkatakrishnan. She graduated in Home Science and also a Diploma holder in Music from Music Academy, Chennai

V. Karthikeyan - Hon. Secretary

Learned Carnatic vocal from Srimathi Saradha for 8 months, under Uthukadu Sri Muthukrishna Iyer for 4 years, under Sri Kakakkadu Ramanarayana Iyer for 5 years and also taken some guidance from Maharajapuram Sri Santhanam on certain subtle aspects .

Learned Miruthangam from Sri M.S. Madhavan a disciple of Sri Kumbakonam Rajappa Iyer.

Learned Tabla from Sri K.C. Chavan.

Learned Sitar from Dilip Kumar Sharma and Sri Chandramouli a disciple of Sri Hussain khan.

Given performances at temples, Thiruvaiyyaru and at Dasara festival at Pune.

A.V. Maghesh is basically a finance person. He has got a rich experience in the field of finance and auditing for more than 6 years. He is a man of multi level activities. He is a managing partner of a consultancy firm called A.V. Maghesh & Co. He also Heads the Indian operations for two USA (New Jersy) based Software Companies. (PRG Systems Inc. and Indus-is llc). In addition to the above, he is also a Director in two Chennai based Private Companies.

Mahalakshmi Ashwin has been a student of Kalakshetra right from the age of seven. Starting her learning endeavor in the presence of none other than Smt. Rukmini Devi Arundale, her first guru was her aunt Smt. Krishnaveni Lakshmanan, former principal of Kalakshetra.

She went ahead to finish her four year under graduation and two year post graduation from Kalakshetra. She was blessed to be trained under doyens of the art like Sri. Jananrdhanan, Prof. Shri. Chandrasekhar and Smt. Ambica Buch.

As a student she has been the recipient of "National Scholarship for Fine Arts" granted by the Ministry of Human Resources, Govt. of India.

Mahalakshmi Ashwin is also a certified dancer in the panel of "Iyal Isai Nadaka Mandram", Govt. of Tamil Nadu.

Her studentship marks many other nominations from various institutions and government bodies for excellence and recognition of her performance.

As a student and performer, she has performed in every production of Kalakshetra.

Mahalakshmi Ashwin has performed in all famed stages across Tamil Nadu and has won tokens of appreciation from media and critics.

Mahalakshmi has also performed and conducted workshops in various places in Malaysia.

Mahalakshmi Ashwin is the youngest performer to have conducted a dance workshop in Shoba Sharma's "NATYA DANCE ACADEMY", Philadelphia, United States of America. She also presented dance recitals and given lecture demonstrations in USA.

An eminent singer, she has been trained under Shri. Rajaram, Grandson of legendary Mysore Vasudevachariar and former Director of Kalakshetra; under Shri. Sitaram Sharma and Smt. Balasaraswati.

Mahalakshmi Ashwin has been providing vocal support for many dance performances.

Learnt at the institution and at an advanced stage with Shri. Sitaram Sharma, Mahalakshmi is also an eminent "Nattuvanar".

Mahalakshmi Ashwin, presently heads "TAPAS - Academy for Classical Fine Arts" an institution that is into teaching of classical music and dance. More than 200 students learn vocal music, bharathanatyam, veena, carnatic key board, mridangam and art/painting in the institution.

The institution offers 5 levels of certification, namely, PRAADHVA, PRABODH, PAATHAKA, PRAYOGI and PRAGNYA. More details of the institution can be found at http://www.tapasacademy.org

On the personal note…

…the 30 year old dancer and singer belonging to Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, India, is happily married to a an executive turned businessman and is blessed with a daughter.

Belonging to a musically oriented family, Mahalakshmi Ashwin is a pretty balanced professional and sahadharmini