Young Harpists in Concert at Eastern Branch Library March 10

SHREWSBURY, NJ – Join us at the Eastern Branch Library in Shrewsbury as young musicians Arjun and Aparna Ayyangar perform a selection of classical, popular, traditional and folk music on the harp.

This free concert will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 10 at the Library, located at 1001 Route 35, Shrewsbury.

The program will include traditional folk songs such as “Greensleeves,” selections from Marcel Grandjany and Carlos Salzedo, and Arjun Ayyangar’s own arrangement of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.”

Brother and sister have been studying the harp – along with other musical instruments – for most of their young lives.

Nine-year-old Aparna Ayyangar has been studying harp since the fall of 2007. She is in the fourth grade at the  Old Bridge Memorial School. As a winner of music competitions, she has played many venues, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City and Field Concert Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Arjun Ayyangar, 13, began his music studies ten years ago by learning piano with Antonio Gandia (B.A., Berkley College of Music). At the age of four, Arjun was selected to perform in a NBC’s premiere prime time series show America’s Most Talented Kid, after going through nationwide audition process. Arjun has been performing with the orchestra at International Music Festival in Bay Village, Ohio since 2003.  In 2009 Arjun won an international piano composition competition from Golden Key of Vienna.

Other instruments Arjun plays: organ, harp, veena, Persian santur and tonbak, and violin. His harp performance won him a competition award from Music Fest (2010);

Both Arjun and Aparna perform frequently at Atlanticare Regional Medical Center in Pomona, NJ as a part of the hospital’s Creative Arts Healing Program. Arjun is a Goodwill Ambassador for Empower The Children – a USA registered charity organization that supports educational and food programs for children in Calcutta, India and other parts of the world. Arjun has pledged to contribute $2 to ETC (http://www.empower-children.org) for every subscriber to his youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/ayyangar

For more information on the concert, please call the Eastern Branch Library at 732-683-8980.  For more information on programming at the Monmouth County Library, please visit our website at www.monmouthcountylib.org.