I recently had a chance to catch up with sisters Aranya and Athithya, who go by Veena Thambaps on YouTube and cover veena renditions of popular songs ranging from A.R. Rahman to movie scores.

Aranya and Athithya have been learning veena from the age of 5 and 7 respectively. A love of carnatic music runs in the family, and their mother – a vocal music teacher – had a huge influence on the two sisters. While most young people hear Tamil cinema songs during car rides, Aranya and Athithya heard carnatic music growing up – an influence that helped them appreciate classical music.

The sisters began learning the fine art of the veena from their first guru, Srimathy Jeyanthi Ratnakumar. Later, they learned from guru Srimathy Kuganeswary Sathiyamoorthy. Their gurus allowed them to explore and experiment on the veena, and encouraged them to use their ear to learn music and interpret new songs. Once they started to begin experimenting with cinema songs, it came naturally and led them to create their YouTube channel Veena Thambaps.

To date, Aranya and Athithya have received  amazing feedback from fans. “It’s a very rewarding and grateful feeling to know that people truly enjoy our music.”

The sisters recently released a video covering “Ennodu Nee Irundhaal” from the Shankar movie “I”. It even caught the attention of Indian playback singer Devan Ekambar.“Who would’ve thought a playback singer would recognize us?”

To learn more about Veena Thambaps:
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