production, Karna, was presented in Texas in September, while the Tamil Sangam production had an encore presentation in Texas. In December 2022, Muralidaran staged his Tamil Sangam production at three major events in India - (1) Bharat Kalachar, (2) Tamil Tourism program, and (3) Karthik Fine Arts Center. Notable compositions Sri Muralidaran has composed and released more than 120 audio albums exclusively for the field of Bharathanatyam. His dance music albums are used by Bharatha Natyam dancers worldwide. He composes both the music and lyrics for his pieces, which reflect innovations in thalam (rhythm patterns), ragam (melodies) and themes. In 2001, Sri Muralidaran was recognized by the prominent Indian music and dance critic Subbudu for "ushering in a new era of composing varnams for the Bharatanatyam repertoire with new themes and... encompassing varied rhythmic cycles with matching lyrics." Rhythmic repertoire Having studied mridangam (percussion) in addition to his pursuit of Bharatha Natyam, Shri Muralidharan compositions explore the nuances of rhythm theory. He plans to have composed full margams (repertoires) in all 35 thalams of the Carnatic Sooladhi Saptha thalam system by 2020, with margams in 20 unique thalams completed to date. Since 2006, Shri Muralidaran has composed several entire margams (traditional repertoires) in rare thalams, including Ashta Dasa Margam, composed in misra jati ata thalam, Akhanda Margam, composed in kanda jati ata thalam, and Nava Dhruvam, composed in sakeerna jati dhruva thalam, the longest thalam cycle with 29 aksharas. Kalaimamani Shri Madurai R. Muralidaran has directed a number of dance festivals and record-setting performances. In 2018, Shri Muralidaran highlighted his exploration of rhythm with a pair of dance festivals. In April 2018, his rhythm festival Chaturvidham presented four new margams each completely set to a rare thalam. The festival culminated with a massive live class with over 320 students learning the nattuvangam and choreography for an alarippu set to Sankeerna Jaathi Dhruva Thalam, the longest thalam in the Carnatic system. This class set Guinness, India Book and Asia Book records for the largest live Bharatha Natyam dance lesson. In November 2018, Shri Muralidharan presented Dhimahi, a three-day dance festival described as "dynamic meditations on Laya" (rhythm), featuring new margams set to 5 more rare thalams. In addition, renown guest artistes Shobana, Lavanya Shankar, Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala, Anitha Guha, Uma Murali, Rukmini Vijayakumar and Srekala Bharath showcased choreography in their own styles for some of Shri Muralidharan's other compositions. Melodic repertoire