About Me
With over two decades of experience in Carnatic music education, my musical journey began at the age of 12 with veena training under Smt. Visweswarammagaru of Chennai and later under Sree Tirumala Rao garu of Hyderabad. Despite being a first-generation music student from my family, with limited musical resources, I feel fortunate to complete the Certificate Course from Telugu University (1993) and passed the Praveshika and Madhyamik vocal examinations from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya with first division.
I taught Carnatic Veena and Vocal at Sur Sumiran School of Music in Indianapolis (Founded by Mrs. Indu Agnihotri), USA(2002-03), and have continued training students in the USA and later at Bangalore since 2012. I had the opportunity of performing at cultural and educational events in both India and the USA, promoting the veena through solo and group presentations.
My teaching focuses on strengthening musical foundations, pronunciation, music theory, devotional and classical compositions, and making Carnatic music accessible to learners of all age groups. To support students appearing for their state music exams, especially non-Telugu speakers, I compiled karNāTAka sangeeta darSini, a theory guide with Telugu University exam references, and am authoring karNāTaka sangeeta deepika Volumes I & II for junior and senior music examinations respectively. I also founded the music initiative “baalaanaadam” in 2022, a WhatsApp group to encourage concert-style musical learning and appreciation among students. Alongside music, I am a Mathematics tutor, freelance content writer, author, and bilingual creative writer, with interests in literature, education, and cultural preservation.
My Story
Music, for me, is an endless journey of learning. Along with Carnatic music and veena, I continue exploring instruments like violin and flute. Under the guidance of Sri Rajan Komanduri garu for veeNa and through online lessons by various gurus, I constantly seek higher knowledge.
Academically, I was a distinction student, won two gold medals in Mathematics, topped my B.Ed. college, and ranked among the top 10 in my Master’s program.
Professionally, I am a tutor of Mathematics, Music, Hindi, and Telugu, as well as a freelance math content writer and author.
Out of my passion, I write stories, poems, articles, and humorous yet thought-provoking pieces in English and Telugu. In 2020, I founded the WhatsApp literary group “TeluguForAllఅందరికీతెలుగు,” which inspired me to publish my first book, beerakayapeechu, based on creative puzzles about human relationships.
-Rani Nistala
Our Website
Sangeeta Siddhi, provides valuable content to all those students appearing for Indian classical music exams. Our team is striving continuously to expand the range of music exams based on the academic year, university and State. One can explore the fabulous quiz section, follow the blog, browse for various musical concerts and other related material.
Hope to see you all enjoy this website and get benefitted.
Any suggestions of improvement, feedback or comments, please feel free to write to us at namaste@sangeetasiddhi.com.
TESTIMONIALS
Parents and students are happy about my dedication in imparting the musical knowledge, and morals imparted to the younger generation. Here are their honest opinions on my teaching and my very first book on music theory, “karNāTaka sangeeta darSini”.
I have had the privilege of having this book as a study guide when I was preparing for my Carnatic music certificate exam. In just two months I was able to score a distinction in music theory. Thanks to “karNāTaka sangeeta deepika”, focusing on all the important topics. Additionally, it helped me understand the correct pronunciation of the words despite being written in English. I'm sure this book will help many more students to come.
“karNāTaka sangeeta darSini”, written by Smt. Rani Nistala, is well structured. I am of a non-music background, yet I found this book easy to understand and the layout of the book is well thought out. The author’s idea of answering the previous years’ exam papers will be very helpful for the students to answer the questions with a good preparation. Students will know which questions are repeated from the previous year’s questions as they are mentioned before each answer. Music students of all ages can easily understand and prepare well for their exams with the help of this book. I wish them all success in their exams.