Redmond Balvihaar, which was started about 15 years ago for the Indian immigrants’ kids growing up in the area, will hold its annual event to showcase what the kids have learned this year from 3-9 p.m. May 20 at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center, 16600 N.E. 80th St.

The 100 percent volunteer-run organization’s event will include music, dance, drama and more.

This year’s special program item is Tamil choir music, which will be conducted by Latha Sambamurti. The choir consists of 14 children and the music is specially composed by reputed Carnatic classical musician Lalitha Mohan from India. The choir will also be performing at Northwest Folklife in Seattle on May 29.

Sri Ganesh Rajagopalan, internationally renowned Indian classical violin maestro, performer and composer for the past four decades, will be the chief guest. He is a founder of Eswara School of Arts and currently resides in Sammamish.

Sambamurti, Washington state arts commissioner and artistic director of various Indian festivals in the Puget Sound area, has been a volunteer teacher at Redmond Balvihaar for many years.

There are approximately 40 students and four volunteer teachers who dedicate their time and knowledge to teach kids. Organizers (administrators) and teachers change every two years. This year’s organizers are Radha Naresh, Vidhya Seshadri and Krithika Balasubramanian. They are responsible for running Redmond Balvihaar smoothly, arranging classes every Friday, printing the syllabus, answering emails, communicating with the teachers and parents, organizing the annual culminating event and more.

There are four levels of classes, with a teacher for each level. Aside from teaching classes, teachers prepare kids for the annual culminating event. This year’s teachers are Sambamurti, Prasanna Padmanabhan, Balasubramanian and Karpagam Lakshmi Narasimhan. They teach Indian heritage, culture, arts and tradition through shlokas, bhajans, moral stories and concepts of Indian festivals.

Classes are conducted at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center from 5:30-6:15 p.m. Fridays. They also conduct Tamil language classes.

To register children for the 2018 classes, contact balvihaar@hotmail.com or visit https://www.facebook.com/BalVihaar/