| | |  Team Swaranjali | | | | Co-ordinators and Teachers | | | | | | London | | | | Darpan Patel  Darpan Patel is a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, producer, performer and a multi-instrumentalist with a difference. A unique blend of Eastern heritage and a Western upbringing, he defines his music as 'Progressive World Soul'. Darpan has been singing since childhood but only seriously began studying and creating music after completing his degree at the London School of Economics at the age of 21. Having been inspired by several personal performances as a singer of soulful song, Darpan decided to sign-up at the Soul Experience Vocal Academy in Hackney, London. Whilst working part-time at a music store and rehearsing at Weststar Studios in Southall on a daily basis, D, as he was known back then, studied under Patrick Jean-Paul Denis, an established British Gospel Artist and Music Coach. At the academy, Darpan learnt the many aspects of music as a vocalist, not just the psychological and practical elements to being a singer, but the music theory and technology required to become a professional musician.
On his journey, Darpan found Chinmaya Mission. With the Mission, Darpan studied and practiced Vedanta whilst also developing his musical and creative abilities in the form of service to the community. He currently teaches music and holds music workshops for youth on a regular basis. The youth group is affectionately known as ChykSoul. Darpan is currently involved in a major youth project called V.I.A. (Vedanta In Action) and has been inspired immensely by Swami Tejomayanandaji.
Soon after beginning his search for meaning through music & spirituality, Darpan rediscovered his Indian musical roots and studied the foundations of Classical Indian Music under Shankar Ganguly, a renowned Semi-Classical/Folk artist. With his new teacher he learnt the basic ragas and tabla, developing an understanding and appreciation of the musical heritage of India.
For more information please visit www.myspace.com/darpanpatel
| | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------top^- | | | Danville | | | | Mrs Radhika Sivaramakrishna  Mrs Radhika Sivaramakrishna, started the Danville Swaranjali with the blessings of Umaji, Premaji and Swamiji.
She lives in Pleasanton, CA. On the professional side she is in program management in the biotech/pharmaceutical arena. She has a Phd, and PMP.
She also teaches Grade 7 at Balavihar, Danville. She has been trained in Carnatic music from the age of 5 and has also had extensive experience teaching children. She teaches Carnatic music currently to 2 groups.
Being part of Swaranjali she feels that it has helped her greatly as it brings a great deal of satisfaction to teach children.
| | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------top^- | | | San Jose | | | | Mrs Prema Sriram  Prema Sriram spent her early days in Mumbai, learning dance, music and nattuvangam under Smt. Rajee Narayan of Nritya Geetanjali.
After marriage, she moved to the USA, and received an MBA in Finance.She continued her musical training under Smt. Jayashree Varadarajan, in California while raising a family. She has participated and produced many musical and dance programs for various charitable and cultural causes honing her creative and teaching abilities.
Recently, in 2003 she started teaching the kids at Chinmaya Mission San Jose.The Swaranjali programs in San Jose has been very successful in training many young children to learn and perform regularly at the Mission celebrations emphasizing singing with understanding and feeling.
In 2007, Swaranjali San Jose, successfully produced a 100 bhajan album entitled "Bhaktirasamrutam" in which fifteen young children participated to raise money for the Mission.
Prema Sriram enjoys learning and sharing her passion with the young children. She constantly strives to expand their repertoire to give them a broad exposure to devotional music in various Indian languages.. She is ably assisted by Smt Jaya Krishnan and Smt Jayashree Ramkumar who are also trained singers and who enjoy working with children.
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