Venue: Bahai Temple of  Worship
Date: 23 August 2014

Music festivals are endemic to world culture. In India, such events date back at least to the days of royalty. Raasrang Flute Festival is a relatively new entrant in this area (five years or so). The Krishnaprerna Trust, true to their name, has been organising this collaboration of flautists from India and overseas.

This was a three day festival and we attended the second evening held at the picturesque Bahai temple. At the auditorium entry, catalogues, peras and small flutes, prettily embellished with zari strips, were handed to the audience. The peras were very tasty and the flutes, not only were beautiful take-homes, but, after a performance, the audience blew the flute in appreciation.

The evening was inaugurated by Hu Yulin from China. He played a variety of bamboo flutes and reminded us of the background score from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”…. (especially the flying chase and fight on bamboo trees 🙂 )

This was followed by saxophone by Manual Hermia and Fabrice Alleman from Belgium. Hermia played two numbers as solo and the first was a piece inspired by shehnai, as an ode to Ustad Bissmillah Khan. The other numbers in their performance appeared to be pieces of jazz.

These artists later collaborated with Rajat Prasanna and Suhail Yusuf Khan playing the flute and sarangi respectively. The ensemble started with Desh Raag and the use of saxophone in an Indian Raag led to very strong notes. The effect was magical and the performance left the audience mesmerized.

Incidentally, notwithstanding the instructions of the host, the foreign artists did not relate their bios and let their performance speak for their skills. This was a refreshing change since, more often than not, any performance in India starts with the reading of a five page biography of the artist. At times, even the artist looks embarrassed.

We hope the organizers of music concerts take a cue and have more faith in the skills of our artists.