Oaviya Bavanendrakumar started learning Carnatic Vocal and Violin under the tutelage of Smt. Manthahini Bogahawatte in 2006 at the age of 7. Since 2009 she has been learning Carnatic Vocal and Violin under the tutelage of Sri B.U. Ganesh Prasad (Chennai, India), taking lessons over Skype regularly, and directly during visits to Chennai in summer holidays. Under her Guru’s guidance she has undertaken the Grade 6 Diploma ACMS (London curriculum based Australian examination board) Vocal and Violin Examinations (passed with Distinction) in March 2015, and performed her Carnatic Vocal Arangetram in January 2016.

Since 2013 Oaviya has also taken lessons with a focus on Tamil krithis, under the tutelage of Smt. Karunalatha Vasanthakumar (Brisbane, Aus).  In 2014 she undertook intensive direct training under the tutelage of Smt. Bhushany Kalyanaraman. She has also undertaken workshops both (vocal and violin) with various visiting artists to Brisbane, including Sri Suresh Babu, and Sri Vijayaraghavan.

In 2014 she was awarded first prize in the ‘Vocal’ category of the 2015 Brisbane Tamil 4EB Radio competition.

As well as Carnatic vocal, Oaviya has studied Bharathanatyam dance with Smt. Manga Surendran since 2010. She has performed non-classical vocal light music at several fund raising and community events, mostly devotional and Tamil cinematic and semi classical pieces. She won Gold medals in speech, poem and written categories at the Association of Australian Tamil Graduates National Speech competition in the 2008, 2009 and 2011 group.