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Delhi on high with Raags... Young and Senior maestros enthrall music connoisseurs at SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan 2012 New Delhi, India, November 29, 2012 |
SAMSAMAPA-Swar-Laya Samvad |
n a scenario where Delhi is playing host to various international stars and bands, on the other end recently at SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan one could get to see how magical the true Indian Classical Music is and what an impact it provides to music connoisseurs. It was a packed house last weekend at Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi where a two days music festival - SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan 2012 was organized. In the world of Indian Classical Music SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan is one of the most talked about programmes, which has a modern presentation fulfilled with glory and glamour with jam packed auditorium it creates buzz amongst the audience. SaMaPa, under the aegis of its chairman, the great music legend, Pandit Bhajan Sopori, is recognized at international level. The SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan is acclaimed as the topmost music festival of Delhi and one of the most prestigious festivals of the country providing a major platform for the young talented musicians to present themselves along with the stalwarts of Indian Classical Music. The 8th Annual SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan featured performances by young and senior musicians which included Ragini Rainu (Sufi Vocal), Abhay Rustum Sopori (Santoor), Ritesh Mishra, Rajnish Misra, Parthapratim Das, Ram Shankar, Shailendra Goswami, Vidushi Shanno Khurana (Vocal), Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, Pt. Manilal Nag (Sitar), Pt. Brij Narayan (Sarod) and Vidushi Geeta Chandran (Dance). The festival commenced with the SaMaPa awards presentation ceremony. H.E. the Governor of Assam, Shri Janaki Ballav Patnaik was awarded the prestigious ‘SaMaPa Kala Vardhan Samman 2012’ for his immense contribution to the growth, development and promotion of Indian art, culture and languages. Vidushi Shanno Khurana and Pandit Manilal Nag were conferred the prestigious ‘SaMaPa Vitasta Award 2012’ for their lifetime contribution to the field of Hindustani classical music in their respective fields of vocal music and Sitar, the veteran singer of J&K Prof. Kailash Mehra Sadhu was conferred the prestigious ‘SaMaPa Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah Award 2012’ for her lifetime contribution to Kashmiri and Dogri Music. Shri S. Sahaya Ranjit was awarded the prestigious ‘SaMaPa Acharya Abhinavgupt Samman 2012’ for his immense contribution to the field of music as a music critic and journalist. Vocalist Ritesh & Rajnish Mishra were awarded the prestigious ‘SaMaPa Yuva Ratan Samman 2012’ in recognition of their achievements in the field of music. The awards were presented by Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Pt. Bhajan Sopori. Dr. Farooq Abdullah highlighted the contribution of SaMaPa in creating a cultural revolution in the country and hailed it as the cultural bridge of J&K and rest of the country. The festival also included a special Painting Exhibition in the foyer by the artists of Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi curated by J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages and Alka Raghuvanshi and Mahesh Bansal. The exhibition also featured a special Photography exhibition by Inni Singh from Delhi. Sohrab Sopori presented the welcome address and in his address he highlighted the spirit of SaMaPa as a cultural movement translating from the deep rooted vision of Pt. Bhajan Sopori, and the tireless efforts of Abhay Sopori, Pt. Vijay Shankar Mishra and other members of SaMaPa board in creating a unique, unbiased and an empowering national level platform for presentation, propagation, and teaching of traditional music and performing arts for the artists and the young talents. SaMaPa widens its horizon into the general masses by creating the right platform for better appreciation and understanding of the traditional music and its technicalities, and enabling them to utilize the power of music in leading a more balanced life, as well as exploring opportunities with music as means to their employment”, he added. On this occasion various eminent personalities were felicitated for their contribution to their respective fields. These included Prof. Viswambhar Nath Mishra from Varanasi for contribution to Indian music and culture, senior musicologist and critic Arun Chatterjee from Varanasi, and others. The internationally acclaimed Panpipe maestro Nicolae Voiculet who came specially to attend the festival from Romania was also felicitated on the occasion. The musical extravaganza commenced with soulful Sufi recital by Ragini Rainu, she commenced with the qualam of Shah Hussain “Maini May Kinnu Akkha”, “Man Chaet Chaet” a Bhajan, followed by Kabir Bhajan “Ras Gagan Gufa”. She was accompanied by Zakir Akhtar Hussain on Tabla, Abid Hussain on Sarangi, Dinkar Sharma on Harmonium and Parveen Sethi on Dholak. The second performance of the evening was by a mesmerizing Santoor recital by Santoor maestro and music composer Abhay Rustum Sopori. He presented Raag Saraswati starting with Aalap and Jod followed by Gat in Vilambit Jhap Taal, Tarana in Drutlaya Mat Taal and Gat in Ati-Drut Teen Taal. He was accompanied by Mithilesh Jha on Tabla. The first evening concluded with an amazing performance of Sitar by Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan in Raag Charukeshi accompanied by Ust. Akram Khan on Tabla. The second day and the morning session of the festival commenced with famous ‘Swar-Laya Samwad’ presentation of SaMaPa. This year the theme of the presentation was “Raag Ek, Ras Anek”. Coordinated and presented by Pt. Vijay Shankar Mishra, the recital featured 3 vocalists Parthapratim Das, Ram Shankar and Shailendra Goswami accompanied by Subhas Kanti Das & Gautam Biswas on Tabla, Ghanshyam Sisodia on Sarangi and Damodar Lal Ghose on Harmonium, who presented the different musical expressions (Ras) like Vatsalya, Viyog, Sanyog, Bhakti, Veer, Virah, Karuna and Shant Ras in Raag Jounpuri. This was followed by Hindustani Vocal by Vidushi Shanno Khurana who presented some rare compositions of Rampur Gharana. She was accompanied by Ustad Akhtar Hasan on Tabla, Vinay Mishra on Harmonium and Bharat Bhushan Goswami on Sarangi. The session concluded with the Sitar recital by Pt. Manilal Nag who presented rare compositions of Vishnupur Gharana. He was accompanied by Pradip Sarkar on Tabla. The concluding session in the evening commenced with Raag Shree by Ritesh & Rajnish Misra accompanied by Shailendra Mishra on Tabla and Paromita Mukherjee on Harmonium, followed by an enthralling musical performance on Sarod by Pt. Brij Narayan who presented Raag Gawati. He was accompanied by Durjay Bhaumik on Tabla. The final presentation of this year's SaMaPa Sangeet Sammelan was the real treat with a lively presentation 'Navadarshanam in Bharatanatyam' by Vidushi Geeta Chandran. Geeta Chandran set the stage on fire with a grand presentation. The traditional Bharatanatyam with the background music of the symphony was surely a grand finale of the festival. Earlier the festival started with the SaMaPa anthem “Saraswati Vandana” presented by the students of Raghubir Singh Junior Modern School, Delhi and Salwan Public School, Gurgaon. The festival was compered by the renowned television personality Sadhna Srivastava. The festival was presented in association with ICCR, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, IFFCO, TATA and Ozone Group, and supported by ONGC & LANCO. The festival saw a great lineup of audiences coming to enjoy the performances from Delhi and other states of the country. The festival was a huge success for all the artists as more than thousands of people came to enjoy and the sizzling performances of the artists left them mesmerized. During the festival many distinguished guests graced the occasion like Dr. Farookh Abdullah (Hon’ble Minister for New & Renewable Energy), Lady Governor Smt. Jayanti Patnaik, Sh. Ghulam Nabi Ratanpuri (Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha), Sh. Suresh Goel (DG ICCR), H.E. Mr. Ruben Zamora Rivas (Ambassador El Salvador, Central America), H.E. Mr. Chandradath Singh (Ambassador, Trinidad & Tobago) and Dr. K.L. Ganju (Consul General, Union of Comoros). Other dignitaries who were seen enjoying the festival included Prof. Aparna Sopori, Mrs. Anita Chandradath Singh, Mrs. Maria Ester Chamorro, Ms. Manisha Gawade (Artist), Smt. Anita Singh, Ms. Arshiya Sethi, Dancer Kavita Dwivedi, Senior Journalist Kishore Dwivedi, and many others. Click to see all the images from the event . |