Anyone who attended last year’s Bengal-ITC SRA Classical Music Festival in Dhaka will never forget the grandeur of what he witnessed. This is the biggest event of its kind, where the maestros of Hindustani classical music dazzled with their charisma.
The overwhelming response from the Bangladeshi audience proved that they do not consider classical music as something “boring” even on the backdrop of the aggression of rock, pop, hip hop and other genres of western and Bollywood music.
The success of last year’s event encouraged Bengal Foundation to come up with the second installment, announced Abul Khair, chairman of Bengal Foundation, at a press conference Sunday at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital. In collaboration with ITC Sangeet Research Academy (SRA), Kolkata, Bengal is organising the show and keeps the promise they made, in last year’s programme.
With the notion to rejuvenate the country’s musical heritage, which has a deep rooted bondage with Hindustani classical music, this year, the four-day long Bengal-ITC SRA Classical Music Festival will begin from November 28. This is the biggest classical music event of its kind in the country. Celebrated and world renowned classical music gurus will grace the occasion with their enthralling and captivating performances.
Around 50 artistes from both India and Bangladesh are to participate in this grand event. Almost all the seasoned artists who performed in last year’s festival will be seen this year as well. The impressive list includes: Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Vidushi Girija Devi, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, Ustad Rashid Khan, Pandit Rajan and Pt Sajan, Pandit Vidushi Kaushiki Chakrabarty and Pubayan Chatterjee. This year’s new attraction will be the performances of sitar palyer Rais Khan, Carnatic music vocalist Bombay Jayashri, rudra veena player Bahauddin Dagar and tabla player Swapan Chowdhury will also perform at the festival.
On the other hand, from Bangladesh’s end, Asit Day, Tamanna Rahman and many others will perform in the mega show.
The music lovers will be able to attend the programme through online registration by visiting in the website www.bengalfoundation.org and www.facebook.com/bfmusicfest. The registration process will begin in November.
The venue for this year’s occasion will also be the same, Bangladesh Army Stadium.
Abul Khair said: “I hope that regular festivals will create opportunities for Bangladeshi artistes to perform in India. A nine day long Bangla Ganer Utsob, highlighting rich music scene of Bangladesh, was held in India, in collaboration with ITC-SRA, Kolkata following last year’s classical music festival. This is a key to generate interest among the new generation to become passionate about music.”
Last year, the festival was dedicated to Ustad Allauddin Khan. This year four individual days will be dedicated to four legends.
Luva Nahid Chowdhury, director general of Bengal Foundation, Ravi Mathur, executive director of ITC-SRA, Kolkata, columnist Anisul Haque and singer Sadiya Afreen Mallik were present at the conference.
