èßäAV

Ryan Brown is the founder and artistic director of Opera Lafayette, which is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary season. Through his work with Opera Lafayette, Ryan has gained an international reputation for his role in the revival and reassessment of significant works from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. His discography of twelve sound recordings for Naxos has focused on the French repertoire, including well-known works by composers such as Lully, Rameau, and Gluck, as well as premiere recordings of operas by Rebel/Francoeur, Monsigny, Philidor, Grétry, Sacchini, and Félicien David. Ryan has also created three DVDs with Opera Lafayette for Naxos, including the modern premieres of Beethoven’s 1806 Leonore, Gaveaux and Bouilly’s Leonore, ou L’Amour conjugal, the 1797 model for Beethoven’s Leonore,  as well as Rameau’s Les Fetes de L’Hymen et de L’Amour, ou Les Dieux d’Egypte, a collaboration with the New York Baroque Dance Company, the Seán Curran Company, and Kalanidhi Dance. Ryan has also led performances of operas by Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Paisiello, and Cimarosa. He regularly appears in Washington, DC and New York with Opera Lafayette and has also conducted in San Francisco, Seattle, and at The Glimmerglass Festival, and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Ryan was raised in a musical family in California and performed extensively as a violinist and chamber musician before turning his attention to conducting. His teachers include Dorothy DeLay and Gustav Meier. He is a recipient of La Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel from La Renaissance Française, and when not conducting spends his time in southwestern Colorado. 

Artistic Director Emerita: Anuradha Nehru

Under the direction of award-winning artist Anuradha Nehru, Kalanidhi Dance captivates audiences with exquisitely conceptualized performances that push Kuchipudi in new and exciting directions. The New York Times has called Kalanidhi a “combination of bright energy, full-bodied sweetness and rapid precision” and “a rare amalgam of prime dance virtues.” The company presents its work regularly at prestigious venues in the U.S. and around the world. The company became the first ensemble based outside India to perform at the prestigious Delhi Ananya Festival. According to The Hindu, the company “took the audience by storm.” Kalanidhi Dance’s work is recognized and funded by the National Endowment For The Arts, Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. 

Anuradha Nehru is the founder and artistic director of the Kalanidhi Dance. An award-winning Kuchipudi artist, Anuradha served as the Artistic Director of Kalanidhi Dance for the past 33 years, which has grown into one of the leading Indian classical dance schools and performing companies in the United States. Under her leadership, Kalanidhi dance has performed at several prestigious venues and dance festivals in the U.S. and around the world. As a choreographer, Anuradha’s quest is to constantly find new ways to create fresh and relevant works that connect with contemporary audiences. She believes in staying true to the depth and beauty of the Indian classical dance style while pushing its boundaries to explore new avenues of creative expression. Her ability to transcend artistic genres is best exemplified in her collaboration with Opera Lafayette in three different operatic works. The first, in 2013, was “Lalla Roukh”, a 19th century French opera situated in India; the second, ‘Les Fetes de L’Hymen et de L’Amour ‘ in 2014 and the most recent, ‘The Enchanted Forest’ , in 2018, were also received by critical acclaim. Recipient of several awards which include, the Pola Nirenska award (2020), Outstanding Artist award from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgery County (2016), National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts award, and the Master Apprentice award from Maryland State Arts Council, Anuradha continues to shape the next generation of outstanding Kuchipudi dancers.

Sriyuktha Ganipineni, a recent recruit into the Kalanidhi Dance Company, dedicated seven years to her training with Kalanidhi Dance. Sriyu has performed extensively as a member of the Kalanidhi dance school at several prestigious events and dance festivals in the Washington metropolitan area such as the Kennedy Center. Currently in her Junior year at Broad Run High School, Sriyu not only excels in her artistic pursuits but also contributes her skills to the school's tennis team. 

Anjana Kuttamath began her dance journey at the age of 5, taking her first steps in Bharatanatyam under her uncle, Arun Kumar, in Kerala. Alongside Bharatanatyam, she pursued Kuchipudi in Hyderabad under the esteemed Guru Pasumarthy Ramalinga Sastry Garu, later continuing her training with Dr. Himabindu Kanoj. Over the years, she has been recognized for her grace, innovative choreography, and ability to seamlessly blend various dance forms. 

Currently pursuing her master's in Interaction Design at George Washington University, Anjana has connected with Kalanidhi Dance, continuing to grow under the guidance of its teachers while performing with the company.

Todd Mion has been a lighting designer in the Baltimore area for over thirty-five years. Recent designs include the world premieres of Mother May I at the Strand Theater, Bad Panda with Iron Crow Theatre, To Get to the Other Side for The Baltimore Playwright’s Festival, The Return of the Fifth Sister at the Capital Fringe Festival, as well as dance designs seen at èßäAVand Lincoln Theater in DC, The Alvin Ailey Theatre in New York City, The Greenhouse Theatre in Chicago, and internationally at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. Todd also designed for the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival where his work included the critically acclaimed A Dickens of a Carol as well as productions of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. He is currently the Head of Production for Dance, Music, and Theater at Goucher College and the resident lighting designer for Door Shakespeare in Bailey’s Harbor, Wisconsin.

Mytreyi Nair , a senior at independence high school, has been a student at Kalanidhi Dance for 12 years and has been part of the Kalanidhi Dance Company since 2021. A passionate dancer, Mytreyi has performed extensively both locally and nationally with Kalanidhi Dance, including at the Kennedy Center, Cherry Blossom Festival, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Atlas Performing Arts Center, The House of Sweden, and the World Dance Showcase. Mytreyi is fortunate and proud to be a part of Kalanidhi Dance company. 

Mytreyi was selected to attend the prestigious Governor School’s Summer Residential Program for Visual and Performing Arts in 2022. A budding artist of note, Mytreyi has demonstrated her interest and talent for choreography by creating dances for local community associations’ theater productions in the DMV area. She is currently a freshman at George Mason University studying Cyber security.

Sean Shibe continues to prove himself a truly original mind at the frontier of contemporary classical music.

2024/25 season highlights include a residency at Wigmore Hall with four concerts across the season, including a special programme dedicated to Pierre Boulez’s centenary performing the chamber cantata Le Marteau sans maître. He tours the UK with folk fiddler Aidan O’Rourke; across the UK and Europe with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, exploring the many iterations of the Orlando myth through electronics, melodica, protest song and recitation; and with Karim Sulayman for a US tour of their breathtaking duo programme Broken Branches. Recent engagements include solo performances at venues including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Wien, among others. 

Shibe is an ardent supporter of contemporary music, taking a hands-on approach to new commissions and working with composers to experiment with and expand the guitar repertoire. Premieres to date include works by Thomas Adès, Oliver Leith, Cassandra Miller, Sasha Scott, Shiva Feshareki, David Lang, Julia Wolfe and Freya Waley-Cohen. He is equally committed to the canon, regularly pairing bold, new pieces with his own transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s lute suites and seventeenth-century Scottish lute manuscripts.

 Recording exclusively for Pentatone, his latest solo album Profesión was awarded the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Award. Released the same year, his album with tenor Karim Sulayman - Broken Branches - was nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, and his solo album Lost & Found was awarded the OPUS Klassik 2023 Award for Solo Instrument, adding to an OPUS Klassik 2021 Award for Chamber Music Recording, a 2019 Gramophone Concept Album of the Year Award and a 2021 Gramophone Instrumental Award for softLOUD and Bach respectively. Born in Edinburgh in 1992, Shibe studied at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, with further studies at Kunst-Universität Graz in Austria and in Italy under Paolo Pegoraro. He is now a Guitar Professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist. The 2019 Best Classical Solo Vocal GRAMMY® Award winner, he continues to earn acclaim for his original and innovative programming and recording projects, while regularly performing on the world’s stages in opera, orchestral concerts, recital and chamber music.

Recently Mr. Sulayman was presented by Carnegie Hall for a sold out solo recital debut followed immediately by the world premiere of his own multidisciplinary production, Unholy Wars at Spoleto Festival USA. He’s also made recent debuts Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Stockholm’s Drottningholms Slottsteater, Houston Grand Opera, and the Chicago, National and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. 

Last season saw performances of his acclaimed program with guitarist Sean Shibe, Broken Branches, at Ravinia Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, CAP-UCLA, Boston Celebrity Series and the Phillips Collection. He made his role debut as Grimoaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda (Hudson Hall), created the role of Crow in the world premiere of Layale Chaker/Lisa Schlesinger’s Ruinous Gods (Spoleto Festival USA). Future engagements include the protagonist in the world premiere of David T. Little’s highly anticipated monodrama What Belongs to You written for Sulayman, his role debut as Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande , a reprisal of his celebrated portrayal of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo , and concerts at Park Avenue Armory, Wigmore Hall and Hong Kong’s Premiere Performances.

Mr. Sulayman won the 2019 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for his debut solo album, Songs of Orpheus (Avie Records), his original program of early Italian Baroque songs and arias. His second solo album, Where Only Stars Can Hear Us (Avie Records), a program of Schubert Lieder with fortepianist Yi-heng Yang, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart and has received international critical acclaim, including being named “Critic’s Choice” by Opera News and included in the New York Times’ Best Classical Music of 2020. His third album, Broken Branches (Pentatone) with Sean Shibe, was named one of the Best Classical Music Albums of 2023 by the New York Times, and was nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album.

Pragnya Thamire began her dance training at age of five under Anuradha Nehru of Kalanidhi Dance. Passionate about Kuchipudi, Pragnya has matured way beyond her years into a confident and vibrant classical Indian dancer. She made her debut as a member of the Kalanidhi Dance Company at the age of 12, and was presented at her solo-debut performance, accompanied by a live orchestra in 2016, at the age of 15. 

A deeply committed artist, Pragnya has also demonstrated her promise as a budding choreographer. She has represented Kalanidhi Dance at a number of prestigious dance festivals and performances across the United States and India. She belongs to the next generation of must-watch Kuchipudi artists. Pragnya joined Kalanidhi staff in January 2022 and is currently the Assistant Artistic Director. 

Deviga Valiyil has been learning from Smt. Anuradha Nehru since the age of 10. Deviga has been a Kalanidhi Dance company member since 2014, participating as a key member in many Kalanidhi productions, some of which include Lalla Roukh, Les Fêtes de I’Hymen et de I’Amour, Rasa Revisited, Why We Dance, Dancing with Shiva, Bhagmati, Chandalika, and Kuchipudi Through the Ages. She has performed at stages including the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center in NYC, and the Library of Congress. Outside of dancing, Deviga works as a software engineer at Northrop Grumman and has her MBA from University of Maryland.

Manya Yellepeddy, a recent recruit into the Kalanidhi Dance Company, is a Junior at Thomas Jefferson High School. She has been learning Kuchipudi at Kalanidhi for the past 11 years. As a young dancer, Manya enjoyed the complex and rhythmic movements involved in Kuchipudi. As she furthers her dance education she has developed a deep appreciation for freedom of expression that this dance form allows. She has performed as a member of the Kalanidhi dance school at several prestigious events and dance festivals in the Washington metropolitan area such as the Kennedy Center. She especially loves dance dramas involving stories and characters from Indian Mythology. Outside of dance Manya enjoys basketball, tennis, debate and robotics.