About Contributors Radio Contact Us TANA and TANTEX jointly hosted a Mesmerizing Musical Night in Dallas “Uncover the musical aptitude by empowering the new generation of singers” is the theme of the evening gathered at the L. D. Bell High School in Hurst, TX as a part of the “Navataram Swaramadhuri” musical concert hosted by the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) on Saturday, May 01, 2010. TANA, founded in 1977, is one of the oldest and largest Indo-American national-level organizations with its charter to perpetuate, integrate, and assimilate the cultural heritage of the Telugu-speaking people of the North American continent into the mainstream of the cultural heritage of North America. This program is co-hosted by the Telugu Association of North Texas (TANTEX), founded in 1986 as a non-profit, non-religious organization to maintain, preserve and perpetuate the cultural heritage of Telugu speaking people of North Texas.

Murali Vennam, Regional Director, South West Region of TANA extended a warm welcome to the visiting guests and over five hundred local Telugu community members in attendance. Murali introduced the emcees of the evening Rajeswari Challa and Subbarao Ponnuru, Chair, Cultural Committee of TANTEX.

The major attraction of the night, the “Navataram Swaramadhuri” concert is lead by the veteran singer and music director G. Anand and the upcoming stars: Pranavi, playback singer; Anjana Sowmya, Super Singers MAA TV Winner; Deepu, playback singer; Ravi, Super Singers, MAA TV Runner; Bhuvana Kruthi, Zee Sarigama Runner. There was a special appearance of the famous MAA TV cooking show “Mavoori Vanta” team lead by the anchor Chitra Lekha who spoke at length about the focus of the program and thanked the audience for their support.

It was a breath taking performance by the Swaramadhuri team presenting a good mix of songs from old and new movies with a variety of themes by each singer in their own style. The audience were enthralled and taken in by every song and could really feel the passion of the singers. There were also moments of loud cheers from the audience whenever their favorite item was performed. Prasad Thotakura, Executive Vice President of TANA reiterated TANA’s continued focus on serving the Telugu community with result oriented programs and enabling a new breed of ambassadors to bring the community together. He commended G. Anand for conducting over 6500 musical programs all over the world while encouraging new talent every time.

Earlier in the day the “Top Singer” competitions for the South West region were held at the same venue, where about fifteen active participants performed under the supervision of the “Swaramadhuri” team. G. Anand, Pranavi, Anjana Sowmya, Deepu, Ravi were the Judges for this competition. Vikram Gandikota and Gopinath Peturi were the two finalists who performed on the stage again in the evening. In the end Vikram Gandikota is the declared Winner of the competition and Gopinath Peturi, the Runner. Speaking on the occasion G, Anand congratulated all the participants. Seeing is believing and give the gift of clear eyesight is the motto of one of the popular TANA Foundation Projects, namely “Operation Envision”, serving the rural areas of India by conducting the much needed eye camps. After a brief video footage of the recent eye camps, Dilip Kuchipudi, Treasurer of TANA Foundation invited volunteers and sponsors to expand the project.

The “Swaramadhuri” team was recognized and felicitated with a Certificate of Appreciation and a bouquet of flowers by the TANA executive team starting with Prasad Thotakura, Executive Vice President, Ram Yalamanchali, Treasurer, Murali Vennam, Regional Director-South West, Dilip Kuchipudi, Treasurer TANA Foundation and the TANTEX team lead by Chandra Kanneganti, President and NMS Reddy, President-Elect. The felicitation ended with a special recognition and presentation of the Certificate of Excellence to the 10-year old Chetan Reddy of Plano, TX who recently secured 1st place in the 52nd Annual Dallas Morning News Regional Spelling Bee competitions held on March 21, 2010 at WFAA-TV (Channel 8 ) studios in Dallas, TX.

The astonishing musical concert came to an end with the vote of thanks to the audience for their attendance, volunteers who spent countless hours of valuable time, LD Bell High School management, and most importantly for the financial support of the sponsors; Horizon Travel, Aahar Indian restaurant, Aries Tours & Travel, Masala Wok, Flavors, Pasand, Our Place, Lawson Travel, PBM Academy, Unicon Travels, The Law offices of Sherin Thawer and Discover Travel