Feature

1. Vedanta Centre’s Building of Art

2. Fazal Qureshi’s Performance in Sydney [Below]

3. Spring In Sydney with Debashish Bhattacharya P2

4. Anoushka Shankar at Sydney Opera House P3

5. Classical Gems of Lata Mangeshkar P3

6. Qawwali P3

 

§ Vedanta Centre’s Building of Art

It is well known that the major monuments of the world, be it Taj Mahal or the Opera House, have been built with sweat, sacrifice, and financial resource. But they have also been built with another driving force quite different to those that associate any building with possession and that is Love, Art, Aesthetics and a Noble purpose.

Let the Vedanta Centre of Sydney therefore be a shade and a respite and the resource centre where all artists of all calibre, strength talent, ideas and imagination convulge. With this in mind I guess the Vedanta Centre despite limited resources available to them launched an evening of music at the Bankstown Auditorium under the sheltered presence of trinities of a different kind, Holy Mother, Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda to bridge the distance between Art and Spirituality.  The Vedanta Centre of Sydney is a wing of an international prestigious and well known organisation the Ramakrishna Mission.

The evening brought devotional music from Uma Ayyar one of Sydney’s foremost carnatic singers and a new entrant Srijani Dan along with Abhijit Dan on Tabla, on the 1st of November 2008 at the Bankstown Town Hall.

The mood was set to meditative as Uma Ayyar took stage to sing popular bhajans accompanied by young violinist Sanjay Ramaswamy who performed with extreme sensitivity and perfection and Shyam Balasubramaniam on the Mridangam who accompanied tastefully. Uma sang bhajans in many languages providing many the pleasure of her composed and unmistakably neat performance. Uma was accompanied to the surprise of all in vocals by Sanjay Ramaswamy when he set aside his violin to sing along with her at a certain point in the performance. 

The orchestra fusion from Abhijit Dan and his team was good effort showing promise. The highlight of the evening by any account goes to Srijani Dan who is blessed with the voice that is close to the likes of any playback singer in India. She captured hearts with several popular classical bollywood numbers a hit formula by any account. Srijani Dan could well be Sydney’s Shreya Goshal.

 

§ Feet Tapping, Head nodding Beats of Fazal Qureshi    By Sydhwaney

Sash Studios, founded by Ustad Sarshar and managed by his sons Ali and Yama, brought to Sydney the rolling sounds of the Tabla of Ustad Fazal Qureshi. The concert sold out to a jam packed audience was held on the 31st August 2008 at Concerd Function Centre, Concord.

The concert started off with Ustad Fazal Qureshi and the Sitar wizard from India, Ravi Chary presenting Raga “Yaman”. This piece was developed by the artists who showed their artistry and command of each of their instruments finishing with a chakradhaar thihaee.

Yama, Fazal Qureshi on Tabla and Ravindra Chary on Sitar

The sounds of the valleys of Kashmir best expressed by the amazing iranian santoor, played by Mrs Homaira and accompanied on tabla by Yama Sarshar, Ketan Parmar on percussions followed after the interval setting the mood providing variety to the evening. The programme progressed into another scintillating coming together of the musicians with the composition of Ali Sarshar, in Mishra Tilang, a combination of Jog and Tilang being presented with pizzazz.

This part of the evening brought the modulating voice of Ali Sarshar, who sang with as much speed as he was playing the Harmonium, a multi talented Ali surprised us with his versatility. Unmatched and equally prominent were the solo participation of the artists and coming together of an evening of musical ingenuity. The audience gave them a standing ovation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guiqV6qpC2M&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2AEi0isQY&NR=1More feet tapping, hand clapping, head nodding rythms followed with the finale of the evening in a Jugalbandi between Guru, Fazal Qureshi and Shishya, Yama Sarshar, proving to be the highlight of the night the audience were treated to the tabla sounds of the Punjab Gharana. With invisible fingers that drummed to the artist’s hearts content composition after compositions flowed through fingers at lightning speed. The energized and amazed audience could hardly break the spell created by this extravagant concert. The standing ovation at the end was befitting.

 

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