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The Bhaskar Rao festival will witness several distinguished persons on
all the three days, including Shri Ram Niwas, Home Secretary, Chandigarh
Administration (Chief Guest on March 12), Shri Pradip Mehra, Advisor to the
Administrator, Chandigarh Administration (March 13) while Punjab Governor and
Administrator UT Chandigarh Shri Shivraj V. Patil will be the Chief Guest on
the concluding evening.
This
year too, as in the past, the Kendra is bringing some of the
internationally acclaimed artists to perform during the festival.
Leading the pack is Delhi
based father-son duo Pandit
Bhajan Sopori and Abhay Rustum Sopori
who are scheduled to open the first evening with their jugalbandi on
Santoor.
The
mystic master of Santoor, Pandit Bhajan Sopori is the bearer of a rich
musical legacy of the fabled Sufiana Gharana of
Kashmir
.
A living legend of Santoor, Pt. Sopori is a composer
par-excellence besides a musicologist, a teacher, a poet and a writer
all rolled into one. He is
a recipient of several awards and titled and is the only classical
musician to have composed music for over 5000 songs in various languages
of the country including Persian, Arabic, etc. “Like father, like
son” is an apt description of Abhay Rustum Sopori. The young Santoor
maestro and music composer, Abhay Sopori is the youngest recipient of
Sangeet Natak Akademi award (Yuva Puraskar).
The
second performance of the first evening will be Kathak Dance by the
troupe led by Sandeep
Mahavir. The
son of renowned music director and singer K. Mahavir under whose
direction top notch singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar, Anup
Jalota, Haricharan had sung, Sandeep is an exceptionally gifted dancer
who have learnt intricacies of this dance form under Madhurita Sarang.
He has an excellent sense of tala and laya and his performance stands
out for its vigor and rhythm accentuated by the clarity of footwork and
proficiency in layakari.
The
second day evening will witness spectacular juglbandi on Tabla and
Sreekhol by Kolkata-based
Madhusudan Barman and Gopal Barman.
The Barman brothers are known as rhythm
artists in music circle and have received critical acclaimed for their
sensational performance on these percussion instruments. While
Madhusudan plays Tabla, the Sreekhol is played by Gopal and both have
mastered these instruments and made sparkles in the music of both the
East and the West.
Young
and celebrated danseuse Meera
Das and her troupe
from
Cuttack
will present Odissi dance
recital as the second item on March 13.
A globe-trotting artiste, Meera Das has learnt under veteran
Gurus Kelucharan Mohapatra and Gangadhar Pradhan and she cast a magical
on the audience with her graceful movements and beauty of the sculptures
from ancient Oriyan temples.
The
concluding day (March 14) brings to the city audiences two most
distinguished stalwarts of the classical music. Pandits
Rajan and Sajan Misra
will open the programme with vocal recital
World’s most celebrated vocalist duo, Rajan and Sajan Misra
needs no introduction in the annals of music. They belong to eminent
family of musicians of
Banaras
gharana. Endowed with sonorous and sensitive voice, the Misra Brothers
create a sublime tonal texture and transforms the mood of the listeners
while touching their soul.
The
Bharatnatyam dance troupe led by Guru
Saroja Vaidyanathan will
mark the concluding performance of the festival. With this presentation,
the three-day Bhaskar Rao Nritya and Sangeet Sammelan would conclude
leaving its lasting memories on the minds of the people who have been
like a steady stream waiting anxiously to listen and witness some of the
best performers presented by the Kendra all these years.
The
Kendra has also taken care to chose some outstanding artists as
accompanists to provide accompaniment to the artistes on different
evenings. They include Delhi Gharana virtuoso Subhash Nirwan who will
provide accompaniment on Tabla to the father-son duo of Bhajan Sopori
and Abhay Sopori, Dinesh Mahavir (Vocal), Kalinath Mishra (Tabla), Dev
Khan, Mansoor Khan and Mohammed Khan to accompany Sandeep K. Mahavir and
Fakruddin Dhaulpuri on Nagma/Sarangi will be the part of Madhusudan and
Gopal Barman’s jugalbandi. Renowned
Harmonium player Mehmood Dhaulpuri and inimitable Tabla maestro would
provide accompaniment on Harmonium and Tabla respectively to Rajan-Sajan
Misra while Lakshmi Seshadri (Vocal), R. Kesavan (Mridangam) and VSK
Chakrapani (Violin) will be the part of Saroja Vaidyanathan’s
Bharatnatyam troupe. |
