CLEVELAND — The 43rd annual Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival began April 5th at Cleveland State University. V.V. Sundaram, one of the festival’s founders, explained what their goal was when they created the festival in 1978.
“We started out saying we wanted to bring the purest form of South Indian classical music and dance to North America,” he said.
The festival is 12 days long and has performances ranging from dances to Indian classical music concerts. Sundaram explained that the goal of the festival has slightly changed over the years.
“We need to bring in the next generation of people who are interested in this world, regardless of their Indian background,” he said.
One of the first festivals they hosted brought in around 75 people, but since then Sundaram said that the growth has been exponential. It has grown to be the largest Indian classical music festival outside of India.
“Last Saturday, opening weekend, we had 5,000 people,” he said.
He explained that there are around 1,200 performers who have taken the stage over the 12-day period and that they come from all over the world.
“To come from all over the United States and from Australia, from Europe, from India and from far east, it’s very fulfilling,” he said.
Performances have run throughout each day of the festival, but the biggest day is Saturday, April 15th. It will serve as the festival’s finale. Sundaram encouraged people to come out and learn more about the Indian classical music culture.
“It’ll touch your heart. It’ll touch your soul,” he said.
The festival team said they are expecting around 10,000 total people to have attended the festival this year.
