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June 2002 |
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WINDOW ON CANADA |
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Musical Soiree Presented by Rasik Arts Aruna Mallya Gupta
Whether
it was the miserable weather, tax deadline or the hockey play-offs, if the
program sponsors of the concert held on April 28, 2002, at 1 Kings’s
College Circle were at all disappointed with the dismal audience turn out,
they certainly did not show it. Having
started almost three quarters of an hour behind schedule, the first half
of the evening had two of our very own Canadian-born, dashing and debonair
artistes, Vineet Vyas of Atlantic Canada on the tabla and Aditya Verma of
Quebec on the sarod. Starting out with Raag Charukeshi, the duo kept the
audience spellbound with their complete mastery of their respective
instruments as also their compatability on stage.
Regaling the rasiks in the Benarasi Gharana spirit, Vyas gave
intermittent delightful vocal insights into the intricacies of his style.
A
disciple of the legendary sitar maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar and renowned
sitar master Ustad Aashish Khan, Aditya has also trained under Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan. Raised in Montreal, Aditya learnt to play the tabla at a very
early age from his father, Dr. Narendra Verma and Ustad Zakir Hussain.
Since 1987, he has been living in India and studying Hindustani classical
music in the Maihar Senia Gharana specializing in the sarod. Besides
concerts, Aditya also gives lecture-demonstrations, teaches and composes
music for recordings and film. Seen
recently at the prestigious East Coast Music Awards, Vineet came into the
spotlight on National Television playing his beloved instrument amidst an
array of mainstream performers. A disciple of Pandit Kishan Maharaj of
Benaras, this young musician was introduced to classical music by his
grandfather Pandit Bhramanad Vyas, a renowned vocalist. A recipient of
numerous grants and awards, he has performed with celebrities like Rajan
and Sajan Mishra and Grammy award-winning guitarist, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt to
name a few. The
second half of the evening had Ravi Naimpally and the very talented TASA
with John Gzowski, Ernie Tollar, Alan Hetherington and Chris Gartner.
Having had the disadvantage of a late Sunday evening start, the group was
not able to offer its full potential and appeared to have cut short what
could have been an amazing performance. Yet
for those who were new to TASA, this was indeed a welcome appetizer, with
promise of more to come. Formed in June 1999, TASA has evolved into a fascinating group, bringing in diversity, by way of musical traditions from North and South India and improvising and blending rhythms to give it a distinct “world” character. With their wide spectrum of intruments including a very interesting mélange of percussion, they created tantalizing and enchanting melodies, which unfortunately ended just as the audiences were savouring in the flavours. It is a pity that the community is not capable of sustaining morale and supporting such fine talent by attending these concerts in larger numbers.
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