Even though born and raised in London (UK), from an early age, Arani Siva has been driven by a love of music and dance, particularly South Indian Classical music (Karnatic Music) and South Indian Classical dance (Bharatanatyam). Not only is its overall message sublime but it forms an integral part of her own cultural and Familial heritage.

She first came to The Bhavan (London, UK) at the age of two and a half! As her elder brother was already learning Veena under Bhavan’s Resident Teacher of South Indian classical music, Smt. Sivasakthi Sivanesan. Thereafter, she became her Guru and Mentor, both for Veena and Vocal. She also studied South Indian classical dance (Bharatanatyam), under Bhavan’s resident Teacher - Guruji Sri Prakash Yadagudde.

A visit to India when she was 5 convinced her that she should pursue dance likewise when she realised its splendid background and tradition. She had some tuition from Indira Krishnamurthy whilst there and even performed in Tirunelveli. Thereafter she travelled to India annually, primarily for dance tuition.

More recently she has performed publicly all over UK and abroad. She had her Arangetram in Chennai (India) at the Music Academy in 2002. At the time of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, she was privileged to dance before Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace.

Her other passion is for music itself and, here, she had the great fortune of learning under Vidushi Smt. Sivasakthi Sivanesan, since she teaches Veena as well as singing; through her she became proficient in her knowledge of music. Through The Bhavan (London, UK) and her teachers; she got to learn under numerous legends and masters of vocal, instrumentalists and dance (Bharatanatyam):

Vocalists: the late Padma Vibushan Sri Balamurali Krishna, Dr. T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Rajkumar Bharathi, The late Shri B. Rajam Iyer, The late Shri K.V. Narayanaswamy, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Shri Ajoy Chakrabarty, Smt. Aruna Sairam, Ranjani Gayatri, Smt. Neela Ramgopal and many more.

Instrumentalists: Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh (Vainika), the late Bharat Ratna Ravi Shankar, Shri Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flautist), the late Smt. Kalpagam Swaminathan (Vainika), the late Shri U. Srinivas (Mandolin), Shri Ganesh and Shri Kumaresh (Violinists), Shri Shashank Subramanyam (Flautist), Shri Kannan Balakrishnan (Vainika), Smt. Prabhavati Ganeshan (Vainika) and many more.

Bharatanatyam: Smt. Chitra Visweswaran, Smt. Padma Subrahmanyam, Shri Shankar Kandasamy, the late Smt. Leela Ramanathan, Smt. Radha (sister of Kamala Lakshman), Smt. Anita Ratnam, and many more.

Arani Siva’s interest in Veena was piqued even further in 2000 when she saw Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh for the first time, perform live at The Bhavan (London, UK). She had the privilege of attending Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh’s workshops since 2002 in UK and still honoured to get further training from her when she goes to Bangalore (India).

She has competed and won several times in the Croydon Music Festival held annually in April-May. She has participated in charity programmes in both Bharatanatyam and Music, where she has raised a lot of money for great causes. She was a member of Samyo (National Youth Music Organisation for Indian Music) and Tarang (Ensemble for Young Professionals) conducted by MilapFest (Liverpool, UK). For ten years she has helped Smt. Sivasakti Sivanesan at The Bhavan (London, UK), assisting in her teaching schedules.

She continued her studies in music by obtaining Bachelor of Music (BMus Hons) degree from Trinity College of Music (London) in 2010.

A dedicated artiste, she has continued her practise and is now regarded as an accomplished young Veena performer. Arani continues to grow her practise in solo and orchestral settings, while also collaborating with other musicians in other music genres. She has performed in numerous events in different venues. Her first solo performance was for the Chola Exhibition at the Royal Academy where she barely even started her first year at University. This was all due to word of mouth about how brilliant she is and an opportunity through Asian Music Circuit (AMC). Other locations included Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena, Millennium Dome (now the O2), BBC Radio, Dartington Hall, Blue Peter, SOAS to name a few. She has also appeared in locations in Europe, India and Canada.

Arani is also a very good educator with excellent communication skills. Her aim in life is to promote the Veena around the world. Thus she conducts workshops in schools and universities in the UK and abroad since 2008; while performing as well. She appears as guest lecturer in universities and does lecture demonstrations. She also delivers Veena and Bharatanatyam presentations and workshops at The Bhavan’s India Awareness Days over the years. Arani’s command of the subject and engagement with the students is unique, and she can create an active participatory interest amongst large groups with her wit.

Skilfully demonstrating Karnatic music and dance concepts to audiences unfamiliar with these; Arani comes across as a confident, skilled artist who is deeply interested in sharing her love of music and dance with others.

Music and dance has been, and always will be, the mainspring of her life, both in Britain and elsewhere.