Ravi Shankar Centre for Arts celebrated the 97th birth anniversary of the late Guru through a series of classical concerts at their premise. We attended a tabla concert by Bikram Ghosh and dance performance by Arushi Mudgal at their open air venue. It was a delightful experience.
“Son Chiraiya”, an organization promoting the music of the east has organised a lovely ensemble of music to celebrate the centenary of Ustad Bismillah Khan, the shehnai star. Girija Devi on vocals and Rajen Prasanna on shehnai respectively performed on the inaugural evening. Many more maestros take stage in the next couple of days in an absolutely fantastic musical journey.
Bharat Parv is a celebration of India’s rich culture and tradition in food, crafts and folk arts. Organised by the ministry of Tourism, the high point was the state and department tabloids that were displayed in Republic Day parade. Apart from this, food from different Indian states, Live performances and handicraft all together created a little India in the sprawling lawns of Red Fort
Odissi is one of the most enchanting classical dances in India. Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra is a forerunner in reviving this art in India. Srijan, his dance school, recently held a full show at India Habitat Centre. We watched this performance and here is our review.
Indian classical music has another platform in Delhi NCR. IGNCA is a forerunner in promoting as well as propagating all sorts of arts. They have recently started a new series in music – Bhinn Shadj. This is a monthly event where they will have a classical music performance once a month. The celebrated Hindustani classical vocalist Shruti Sadolikar was the artist for December 2016 and she made our Christmas eve very memorable.
Delhi heat is inversely proportional to the cultural activities that are held in NCR. As the temperature starts dipping, a variety of events are held all over the region. A novel initiative, the International Ethnic Folklore Festival was recently held at Sirifort Auditorium. A variety of music and dance performances from various countries of the world were presented during the event.
The yearly celebration of the contemporary art forms come together at the Contemporary Arts Week organised by Friends of Art. This 8 days long arts festival covers music, theatre, paintings, puppetry, short films and other visual arts forms. It is on from 15th to 22nd October at various venues across Delhi. The inaugural days are at Nehru Park
We have a thing for stand up comedies and try to attend these gigs in Delhi NCR. Jason Byrne, the internationally renowned comedian recently performed at Kamani Auditorium. We watched him with wonder!
HCL series concerts present various classical artists of music and dance in India. We recently had the good fortune of watching Aditi Mangaldas and her troupe performing the piece “Uncharted Seas” at Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon. The spell binding experience makes us conscious of the rich and timeless legacy that we inherited in terms of music and arts in India.
“The Courtesan – An Enigma” is a performance conceptualized and rendered by the Kathak dancer Manjari Chaturvedi along with narration by Neesha Singh. Chaturvedi tries to give the audience a glimpse of the works of the tawaifs or courtesans of yester eras. She performed to a full house at India Habitat Centre recently and it was definitely an unusual theme that she presented.
Triveni Kala Sangam has an open stage with grass covered steps as the seating area. The simplicity of this arrangement was very enticing and we yearned to see a program here. During one of our recent visits to the Terrace Cafe we by chance came across a Bharatnatyam recital by the students of Jayalakshmi Eshwar . Our wish was fulfilled.
Stand up comedy may be a thing from the west. But given its popularity with the audience it is here to stay. We have watched stand up acts in Delhi NCR and have rarely been disappointed. Buoyed with the confidence, we watched a recent stand up show Lolmaal organised by Laughter Nation at the Akshara Theatre.
We don’t get to hear a lot of choir music concerts in Delhi NCR. The Capital City Minstrels as a chamber choir are a forerunner of popularizing this genre of music up north. They held a series of concerts across Delhi NCR and we watched one of them at India Habitat Centre.
Rachana Yadav recently performed Samvet – A 70 minute programme of Kathak based on Five Elements of nature. We in Gurgaon, don’t get to see a lot of classical art based programmes. Hence it’s no surprise that the auditorium was full even on a week evening.
There is a musician inside many of us. Some of them are visible and some hidden. Various random groups in Delhi NCR are providing platforms for these hidden passions to manifest. They choose a busy place – a café – and start!
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