Newlyweds Sonia Tripathi and Matthew Sidorick

By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: In almost all Indian weddings, the sangeet features some performances by amateurs who are family friends or artists hired just for the occasion. But for Sonia Tripathi’s sangeet, held at the Hilton Post Oak, there couldn’t have had any better performers than the bride’s sister and friends, all of whom are talented musician, and many came from the music school where she works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The owners of the school where she works – Victoria and Alisha McGinnis – even performed a dance set to Purple Rain by Prince.

It was heartening to see the little girl who used to live around the corner from us finally tie the knot with her Prince Charming. As a young girl, going to school on the westside and then later to the High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, Sonia would often babysit other children (including mine) in the neighborhood.

Last Saturday, March 29, 2014, surrounded by family and many of her friends, including many of those whom she had grown up with and have since gotten married themselves, Sonia took the vows of marriage to Matthew Sidorick at a Hindu ceremony held at the Omni Hotel on Woodway and officiated by Pandit Padmakar Gangathirkar from Austin, who added a great deal for the initiated guests through his narration and appropriately timed bits of pleasant humor.

Sonia, 33, is the daughter of longtime Houston residents Bhupinder and Archna Tripathi and works in the Piano Faculty at the Center for Young Musicians in Pittsburgh, where she moved to five years ago. Her younger sister, Simi, also is a Piano teacher at the same school. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Piano from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and subsequently finished her PhD in Piano Performance from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Matthew, 34, is the son of Susan and the late Frederick Sidorick and was born and brought up in Pennsylvania. He received his Masters in Public Policy from Carnegie-Mellon University and works in his own IT and software business in Pittsburgh. Many of his family attended, including his sister Julie (his other sister Adria could not attend due to an illness); octogenarian Uncle Dr. Ray Francis who has been a father figure to Matt since his father passed away; and Matt’s father’s brother Andrew Sidorick who came despite a recent stroke and bad fall which left him with stitches on his face.

After the wedding, the newlyweds went on a mini-honeymoon to Jamaica, saving the longer, month-long honeymoon to Florence in August when Sonia would have her summer break.