The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is the largest Indian classical music festival outside of India. It was first celebrated in 1978 and has now grown to be a 12-day festival with more than 8,000 attendees with 2,000 appearing for the opening weekend. The year 2019 is the Festival's 42nd year. It will feature two programs for Sustaining Sampradaya that include some of the greatest compositions of Carnatic music in some of the most enchanting ragas.

The first program is a tribute to one of the greatest creative musicians of our time, S. Rajam whose centenary year is 2019. The second program will be dedicated to the memory of D. K. Pattammal, whose centenary is also 2019.

This year, the festival will begin on Wednesday, April 17, 2019.