Bhargavi Balasubramanian is a rare blend of a proficient Vocalist, Chitravina exponent, Educator and Innovator. She was initiated to vocal music by Smt Kokila Sundaram, continued briefly Savita Narasimhan and has been receiving advanced training from the legendary Chitravina N Ravikiran from 2001. She has since bloomed into a highly respected vocalist as well as the most active female Chitravina exponent in the world and is a graded artist of All India Radio, Chennai in both Vocal & Chitravina.
Bhargavi has presented numerous solo Vocal and Chitravina concerts for noted organizations across the world and alongside her guru, Ravikiran, in reputed venues in India & USA and in special concerts and recordings for Sangeet Natak Akademi and Television networks from France and Greece. Bhargavi has also performed in collaboration with several frontline artists such as Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Carnatica Brothers, Dr M Narmada and Arnab Bhattacharya among many others. She has been a lead singer or player in dance performances featuring legends including Pt Birju Maharaj, Sujatha Mohapatra, Prof C V Chandrashekar and Narthaki Nataraj.
Bhargavi has been regularly performing in North America since 2008, and won acclaim in various cities such as Cleveland, New Jersey, San Jose, New York, San Diego, Boston, Minneapolis, Alabama, Connecticut, Phoenix, Florida and Toronto, to name a few. She has also presented numerous workshops and lecture-demonstrations in India, North America and the Middle East.
Milestones
Bhargavi was featured in the music ensemble for the world premiere of the epic operatic productions, Ramayana (2011) & Mahabharata (2014), in the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana festival. In April 2017, she was one of the lead vocalists for the world premiere of Srimad Bhagavatam and subsequently in Jayadeva’s Ashtapadis (Cleveland, 2017) and Arunachala Kavi’s Ramanatakam (Cleveland, 2018). She also curated the production and publications of the Ashtapadis and Ramanataka compositions. Bhargavi directed the Archaryanet Classical Ensemble (ACE) in 2023 to present exclusive thematic concerts of Ravikiran’s 108 Divya Desha Gaanaamrtam Compositions in San Diego & Cleveland Festivals. She has also performed in various Television shows and interviews for Doordarshan, Amrita, Jai Hind, Peppers, Shankara, SVBC as well as the Television networks of France & Greece. Bhargavi ia also a passionate comoser & arranger and has dabbled in composing Carnatic compositions & Melharmonic arrangements.
Bhargavi has been recognised and honoured with titles such as, ‘Isai Arasi’ by Trinity Fine Arts and ‘Sathya Sunada Sundaram’ by the Bharatanjali Trust (Chennai). She had the honour of receiving the “T S Balakrishna Sastrigal Award for Excellence in the field of music” from Sangita Kalanidhi & Mrdangam maestro, Dr Umayalpuram K Sivaraman.
Bhargavi is a much sought-after guru and has mentored several International Award Winning students and performers. Senior-most faculty in Ravikiran’s International Foundation for Carnatic Music (IFCM), she has over 20 years of experience in managing both live and online classes. She is much respected for her vast repertoire, skills in creative improvisational aspects of music and her ability to work patiently with students from all age groups and for imparting her Guru’s traditional and exclusive style through qualitative training.
She has also conducted several summer camps & exclusive music workshops in USA and Doha and was one of the popular core trainers of the famed ‘Sustaining Sampradya Programme’ of the Cleveland Tyagaraja Festival.
