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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on April 15, 2013
Posted in Culture (news), Economics (news), Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on April 7, 2013
English: Live sitar concert with Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka Shankar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ravi Shankar , KBE (Bengali: রবি শংকর, IPA: [ˈrɔbi ˈʃɔŋkɔr]; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012), often referred to by the title Pandit, was an Indian musician and composer who played the sitar. He has been described as the best-known contemporary Indian musician.
Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musicianAllauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.
In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and rock artist George Harrison of the Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received threeGrammy Awards. He continued to perform in the 2000s, sometimes with his younger daughter,Anoushka. He was posthumously awarded two Grammy awards in 2013, one for lifetime achievement, another for The Living Room Sessions Part 1 in the world music category.
Shankar was born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury on 7 April 1920 in Varanasi, to a Bengali Brahmin family as the youngest of seven brothers. His father, Shyam Shankar, a Middle Temple barrister and scholar who served as dewanof Jhalawar, used the Sanskrit spelling of the family name and removed its last part. Shyam was married to Shankar’s mother Hemangini Devi, and later worked as a lawyer in London, England. There he married a second time while Devi raised Shankar in Varanasi, and did not meet his son until he was eight years old. Shankar shortened the Sanskrit version of his first name, Ravindra, to Ravi, for “sun”.
At the age of ten, after spending his first decade in Varanasi, Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his brother, choreographer Uday Shankar. By the age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance and play various Indian instruments. Uday’s dance group toured Europe and the United States in the early to mid-1930s and Shankar learned French, discovered Western classical music, jazz, cinema and became acquainted with Western customs. Shankar heard the lead musician for theMaihar court, Allauddin Khan, in December 1934 at a music conference in Kolkata and Uday convinced the Maharaja of Maihar in 1935 to allow Khan to become his group’s soloist for a tour of Europe. Shankar was sporadically trained by Khan on tour, and Khan offered Shankar training to become a serious musician under the condition that he abandon touring and come to Maihar.
Shankar’s parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, and touring the West had become difficult due to political conflicts that would lead to World War II. Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khan’s pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system. Khan was a rigorous teacher and Shankar had training on sitar and surbahar, learned ragas and the musical styles dhrupad, dhamar, and khyal, and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena, rubab, and sursingar. He often studied with Khan’s children Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi. Shankar began to perform publicly on sitar in December 1939 and his debut performance was a jugalbandi (duet) with Ali Akbar Khan, who played the string instrument sarod.
Shankar completed his training in 1944. Following his training, he moved to Mumbai and joined the Indian People’s Theatre Association, for whom he composed music for ballets in 1945 and 1946. Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song “Sare Jahan Se Achcha” at the age of 25. He began to record music for HMV India and worked as a music director for All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi, from February 1949 to January 1956. Shankar founded the Indian National Orchestra at AIR and composed for it; in his compositions he combined Western and classical Indian instrumentation. Beginning in the mid-1950s he composed the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, which became internationally acclaimed. He was music director for several Hindi movies including Godaan and Anuradha.
Ravi Shankar Audio Tape (Photo credit: vermegrigio)
V. K. Narayana Menon, director of AIR Delhi, introduced the Western violinist Yehudi Menuhin to Shankar during Menuhin’s first visit to India in 1952. Shankar had performed as part of a cultural delegation in the Soviet Union in 1954 and Menuhin invited Shankar in 1955 to perform in New York City for a demonstration of Indian classical music, sponsored by the Ford Foundation
Shankar declined to attend due to problems in his marriage, but recommended Ali Akbar Khan to play instead. Khan reluctantly accepted and performed with Tabla (percussion) player Chatur Lal in the Museum of Modern Art, and he later became the first Indian classical musician to perform on American television and record a full raga performance, for Angel Records.
Shankar heard about the positive response Khan received and resigned from AIR in 1956 to tour the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. He played for smaller audiences and educated them about Indian music, incorporating ragas from the South Indian Carnatic music in his performances, and recorded his first LP album Three Ragas in London, released in 1956. In 1958, Shankar participated in the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the United Nations and UNESCO music festival in Paris. From 1961, he toured Europe, the United States, and Australia, and became the first Indian to compose music for non-Indian films. Chatur Lal accompanied Shankar on tabla until 1962, when Alla Rakha assumed the role. Shankar founded the Kinnara School of Music in Mumbai in 1962.
Shankar befriended Richard Bock, founder of World Pacific Records, on his first American tour and recorded most of his albums in the 1950s and 1960s for Bock’s label. The Byrds recorded at the same studio and heard Shankar’s music, which led them to incorporate some of its elements in theirs, introducing the genre to their friend George Harrison of the Beatles. Harrison became interested in Indian classical music, bought a sitar and used it to record the song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)“. This led to Indian music being used by other musicians and created the raga rock trend.
Harrison met Shankar in London in June 1966 and visited India later that year for six weeks to study sitar under Shankar in Srinagar. During the visit, a documentary film about Shankar named Raga was shot by Howard Worth, and released in 1971. Shankar’s association with Harrison greatly increased Shankar’s popularity and Ken Hunt of Allmusic would state that Shankar had become “the most famous Indian musician on the planet” by 1966. In 1967, he performed at the Monterey Pop Festival and won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performancefor West Meets East, a collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin. The same year, the Beatles won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which included “Within You Without You” by Harrison, a song that was influenced by Indian classical music. Shankar opened a Western branch of the Kinnara School of Music in Los Angeles, California, in May 1967, and published an autobiography, My Music, My Life, in 1968. In 1968, he scored for the movie Charly. He performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, and found he disliked the venue. In the 1970s Shankar distanced himself from the hippie movement.
English: George Harrison, Gerald Ford, and Ravi Shankar in the Oval Office (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In October 1970 Shankar became chair of the department of Indian music of the California Institute of the Arts after previously teaching at the City College of New York, the University of California, Los Angeles, and being guest lecturer at other colleges and universities, including the Ali Akbar College of Music. In late 1970, the London Symphony Orchestra invited Shankar to compose a concerto with sitar; Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra was performed with André Previn as conductor and Shankar playing the sitar. Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has criticised the usage of the orchestra in this concert as “amateurish”. George Harrison organized the charity Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, in which Shankar participated. After the musicians had tuned up on stage for over a minute, the naive crowd broke into applause, to which the amused Shankar responded: “If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.” Although interest in Indian music had decreased in the early 1970s, the concert album became one of the best-selling recordings to feature the genre and won Shankar a second Grammy Award.
English: Pandit Ravi Shankar at the Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
During the 1970s, Shankar and Harrison worked together again, recording Shankar Family & Friends in 1973 and touring North America the following year to a mixed response after Shankar had toured Europe with the Harrison-sponsored Music Festival from India. The demanding schedule weakened Shankar, and he suffered a heart attack in Chicago in November 1974, causing him to miss a portion of the tour. In his absence, Shankar’s sister-in-law, singer Lakshmi Shankar, conducted the touring orchestra. The touring band visited the White House on invitation of John Gardner Ford, son of U.S. President Gerald Ford. Shankar toured and taught for the remainder of the 1970s and the 1980s and released his second concerto, Raga Mala, conducted by Zubin Mehta, in 1981. Shankar was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for his work on the 1982 movie Gandhi, but lost to John Williams‘ E.T. He served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India, from 12 May 1986 to 11 May 1992, after being nominated by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Shankar composed the dance drama Ghanashyam in 1989. His liberal views on musical cooperation led him to contemporary composer Philip Glass, with whom he released an album, Passages, in 1990.
Shankar underwent an angioplasty in 1992 due to heart problems, after which George Harrison involved himself in several of Shankar’s projects. Because of the positive response to Shankar’s 1996 career compilation In Celebration, Shankar wrote a second autobiography, Raga Mala, with Harrison as editor. He performed in between 25 and 40 concerts every year during the late 1990s. Shankar taught his daughter Anoushka Shankar to play sitar and in 1997 became a Regent’s Lecturer at University of California, San Diego. In the 2000s, he won a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 and toured with Anoushka, who released a book about her father, Bapi: Love of My Life, in 2002. Anoushka performed a composition by Shankar for the 2002 Harrison memorial Concert for George and Shankar wrote a third concerto for sitar and orchestra for Anoushka and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In June 2008, Shankar played what was billed as his last European concert, but his 2011 tour included dates in the United Kingdom.
Shankar performed his final concert, with daughter Anoushka, on 4 November 2012 at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California.
“Ravishankar-A Legend of Glory”, produced by Prabir Roy represented Doordarshan in International T.V. Network Festival. This was held in Miami, U.S.A. in September,1984.
Ravi Shankar – The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh 1 (Photo credit: The Queen’s Hall)
Shankar developed a style distinct from that of his contemporaries and incorporated influences from rhythm practices of Carnatic music. His performances begin with solo alap, jor, and jhala (introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with the prevalentkhyal style. Shankar often closed his performances with a piece inspired by the light-classical thumrigenre.
Shankar has been considered one of the top sitar players of the second half of the 20th century. He popularized performing on the bass octave of the sitar for the alap section and became known for a distinctive playing style in the middle and high registers that used quick and short deviations of the playing string and his sound creation through stops and strikes on the main playing string. Narayana Menon of The New Grove Dictionary noted Shankar’s liking for rhythmic novelties, among them the use of unconventional rhythmic cycles. Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has argued that Shankar’s playing style was not widely adopted and that he was surpassed by other sitar players in the performance of melodic passages. Shankar’s interplay with Alla Rakha improved appreciation for tabla playing in Hindustani classical music. Shankar promoted the jugalbandi duet concert style and introduced new ragas, including Tilak Shyam, Nat Bhairav and Bairagi.
Shankar won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the 1957 Berlin International Film Festival for composing the music for the movieKabuliwala. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1962, and was named a Fellow of the academy for 1975. Shankar was awarded the three highest national civil honours of India: Padma Bhushan, in 1967, Padma Vibhushan, in 1981, and Bharat Ratna, in 1999. He received the music award of the UNESCO International Music Council in 1975, three Grammy Awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Shankar was awarded honorary degrees from universities in India and the United States. He received the Kalidas Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for 1987–88, the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 1991, the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1992, and the Polar Music Prize in 1998. In 2001, Shankar was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Elizabeth II for his “services to music”. Shankar was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1997 received the Praemium Imperiale for music from the Japan Art Association. The American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane named his son Ravi Coltrane after Shankar. In 2010, Shankar received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was also awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour. Post his death, Grammy has announced Pandit Ravi Shankar as a recipient of the lifetime achievement Grammy like Glenn Gould, Charlie Haden, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Carole King, Patti Page and the Temptations. He was the first recipient of the Tagore Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony and universal values.
English: Ravi Shankar performs in Delhi with his daughter Anoushka in March 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Shankar married Allauddin Khan’s daughter
Annapurna Devi in 1941 and his son Shubhendra Shankarwas born in 1942. Shankar separated from Devi during the 1940s and had a relationship with Kamala Shastri, a dancer, beginning in the late 1940s.
An affair with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, led to the birth of Norah Jones in 1979.
After separating from Kamala Shastri in 1981, Anoushka Shankar was born to Shankar and Sukanya Rajan. Shankar, however, lived with Sue Jones until 1986. He married Sukanya Rajan, whom he had known since the 1970s in 1989 at Chilkur Temple in Hyderabad, India.
Shubhendra “Shubho” Shankar often accompanied his father on tours. He could play the sitar and surbahar, but elected not to pursue a solo career. He died in 1992. Norah Jones became a successful musician in the 2000s, winning eight Grammy Awards in 2003. Anoushka Shankar was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2003. Anoushka and her father were nominated for Best World Music Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards for separate albums.
Shankar was a Hindu and a vegetarian. He wore a large diamond ring which he said was “manifested” by Sathya Sai Baba. He lived with Sukanya in Encinitas, California.
On 6 December 2012, Shankar was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, San Diego, California after complaining of breathing difficulties. He died on 11 December 2012 at around 16:30 PST. According to his spokesman, Stuart Wolferman, Shankar died at a hospital near his home in Encinitas, California. The Ravi Shankar Foundation issued a statement that read Shankar had suffered from upper-respiratory and heart issues over the past year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery on 6 December 2012.
Condolences were extended by the President of India, Prime Minister of India and Indian parliament, Other reactions from the Indian political and cultural spheres included: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s office which wrote on Twitter that he was “a national treasure and global ambassador of India’s cultural heritage.” His cabinet colleague Minister of State for Communications & IT Milind Deora wrote: “Being a maestro wasn’t his only achievement. Pandit Ravi Shankar sold Brand India better than anyone else. RIP.” Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi added onTwitter: “Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar was the legendary musician who gave new identity to Indian classical music. May his soul rest in peace.” While, India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Nirupuma Rao also wrote on Twitter: “Pandit Ravi Shankar: his last concert was particularly poignant. Anoushka and he played together in perfect unison. A torch was passed.” Other apolitical reactions included: Bollywood composer Vishal Dadlaniwho wrote on Twitter: “The world’s best-known exponent of Indian music, he influenced the Beatles, and hence everything since! RIP Pt. Ravi Shankar.” Santoor players Shiv Kumar Sharma said: “It is a great loss, not just to Indian music but to world music. He was a world musician.” NovelistHari Kunzru added on Twitter: “RIP Pandit Ravi Shankar. My father performed hand surgery on him. Stakes not low there…” Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (not related) also wrote on Twitter: “Pandit Ravi Shankar was a legend in music and he took classical music to new heights.” His death was also noted in the international and foreign language media.
The Swara Samrat festival organized on January 5–6, 2013 was dedicated to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan where musicians like Shivkumar Sharma, Birju Maharaj, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Girija Devi etc. performed.
Improvisations (Ravi Shankar album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on April 4, 2013
English: Kumar Bose in July 2007 at the Barbic…
Kumar Bose (born 4 April 1953) is an Indian tabla maestro and composer of Indian classical music. Bose belongs to the Benaras Gharana style of tabla playing. Having honed his skills under the tutelage of the legendary Pandit Kishan Maharaj, Pandit Bose rose to prominence with his flamboyant performances with Pandit Ravi Shankar. In addition to his musical abilities, Bose is also an awarded sportsman, a carrom champion, and fluently speaks four languages. In a career spanning more than four decades,Pandit Kumar Bose has established himself as one of the leading exponents of the tabla and an internationally recognised face in the world of Indian Classical Music. He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2007.
Bose was born in Kolkata in a musical family. His father was Biswanath Bose, a distinguished tabla player who taught his son to play his first beat of rhythm.
His mother Bharati Bose was an eminent sitarist and disciple of the great Dabir Khan and Ali Akbar Khan Bharati received several awards in her career, including recognition as an All India Radio Artist and the President’s Award for Best Sitar Performance in 1956. She guided her son with the basic forms of classical music and helped him to groom himself as a professional tabla player.
His brothers are also noted musicians, who keep a traditional, thorough and vigorous training regime. His brother Acharya Jayanta Bose is an internationally reputed composer, lyrist, harmonium soloist and singer, while his brother Debojyoti Bose is a noted sarod player and music director.
Bose’s first teacher was his father. After his father’s untimely death, he was taught by Kishan Maharaj (1923–2008), a highly respected musician.
Bose has been applauded for evolving a distinctive style of his own without diluting the purity of tradition. Bose has elevated the tabla as a musical instrument in its own right, both through solo performances as a main artist and through his accompaniment of others. Bose has been devoted to the classic tabla for 35 years without interruption and is considered one of the most powerful players alive.
A master percussionist, Bose plays several other drums besides the tabla which include the sri-khole, the pakhwaj, the dholak, the nal, and the banga-kanga. However, it is the unusual way that he plays the bnaya that has brought him attention. He plays the bass drum-like instrument with his right hand, although he plays the tabla with his left. Though he is right-handed, he picked up this practice by sitting across from and mirroring his father from early childhood.
Bose gave his first public performance at the age of 4. By 14, he performed abroad and has played at almost every major music hall in the world since. He has performed at theRoyal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Kremlin in Moscow, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall in New York, and at various venues throughout India.He also has the distinction of having performed for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles as an accompanist to Pandit Ravi Shankar.
He has the rare distinction of highly-acclaimed performances with Zubin Mehta‘s Philharmonic Orchestra and participation in several symphony orchestras conducted by Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, and Arnovich in England, Italy, China, Russia and the United States.
In addition to a 10 year exclusive tour as the tabla accompanist to Ravi Shankar from 1984 to 1994, he has performed and composed with musicians globally. Over the past 40 years, he has also performed and recorded in duets with his guru. From the Benaras Gharana, he has played with Girija Devi, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Kanthe Maharaj, and Kishan Maharaj.
While he has collaborated with leaders in jazz, pop and rock, it was his duet with Iranian thumba player Professor Semurani that drew praise. Bose’s collaborations have given an international reputation as a great musician.
Of the six established tabla gharanas or schools of tabla playing, the Benares Gharana, of which Bose belongs, has been the most staunch in its refusal to compromise the traditions when moving into more lucrative contemporary fusions. While criticized decades ago for his rigidity and refusal to adapt modern fusion and film music, Bose is now credited with preserving classical musical style and philosophy. He has kept the tradition of the Benares Gharana by subtly balancing the warm bass tones of the bnaya with the higher-pitched crisp tones and syncopations of the tabla. Many of Bose’s compositions have been written to accompany the rhythmical movements of kathak dancers and are a specialty of the Benares tradition.
Bose currently conducts private lessons in the style of his mentors. He conducts classes daily with students from age 3 to 35 at his home in North Calcutta. He is known for maintaining high standards for his students, emphasizing the importance devoted practice and other aspects of the tradition. His high profile students also includes the likes of the Mumbai-based tabla player Shyama Prasad Das.
Bose has produced or performed on over 200 recordings in several genres, while staying true to his classical Indian lineage. The first live international recording of his solo Virtuositywas released through the Darbar Festival 2006 in London. The album includes some rare gems from the archives of the Benares repertoire, including the compositions of Ram Sahai, who founded the gharana at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Toward the end of the album, Bose demonstrates one of his specialities: playing a variety of cross rhythms on the dayan with his right hand while simultaneously holding down a fast repetitive beat on the bnaya with his left hand. The Times reviewed the performance, declaring him “the best tabla player in the world today.”
Kumar Bose is married to Kaberi Bose, a classical singer and they have a daughter Trisha Bose, a vocalist.
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on April 1, 2013
Palghat Kollengode Viswanatha Ramanarayanan (Malayalam:പാലക്കാട് കൊല്ലങ്കോട് നാരായണസ്വാമി) (November 15, 1923 – April 1, 2002), often referred to as KV Narayanaswamy was an Indian musician, widely considered to be among the finest Carnatic music vocalists of the 20th century. He was described as the “Gentle Perfect Knight” of Carnatic music, a phrase from Geoffrey Chaucer, by V. K. Narayana Menon, prominent art critic of India and recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship.
K.V. Narayanaswamy (photo credit: Spicmacay Tamu)
KVN was born to Kollengode Viswanathayyar and Muthulakshmi Ammal in Palghat, Kerala, to a Palakkad Iyer family, a district renowned for its cultural and musical traditions, on the 15th of November, 1923. Narayanaswamy was born into a family of illustrious musicians and artists. His great-grandfather Viswam Bhagavatar was renowned for his evocative Ashtapadis and rendered services for Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal, ruler of theprincely state of Travancore from 1860 to 1880. In return Viswam Bhagavatar was bestowed with government aid and hereditary royal privileges. Viswam Bhagavatar’s son, Narayana Bhagavatar continued his father’s legacy. His son was violin maestro, Viswanathayyar (soon came to be known as ‘Fiddle‘ Viswanathayyar), KVN’s father. K.V.Narayanaswamy learned basic music lessons under his father and grandfather. After studying in Palghat till the fifth form, he moved to Coimbatore, where he briefly dabbled in theater. KVN even managed a role as the young Kanappan in the movie Kannappa Nayanar. The movie bombed at the box office.
KVN first began extensive training under Mridangam maestro, Padma Bhushan, Palghat Mani Iyer. Mani Iyer proceeded to place KVN under the tutelage of Sangeetakalacharya C.S. Krishna Iyer, a highly competent vocalist, musicologist and composer in Palghat, and then under violinist andSangeetha Kalanidhi Papa Venkataramiah. Viswanatha Bhagavatar was however very keen that KVN should train under Sangeetha kalanidhiChembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar or Padma Bhushan Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, who were two of the most dominant musicians of the first half of the twentieth century along with the likes of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and G. N. Balasubramaniam. Mani Iyer soon judged KVN to be ready forgurukulavasam under Ariyakudi and in 1942, KVN took the giant step. He entered the home of Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar and remained an ardent disciple until the latter’s death in 1967.
KVN’s major break came at a Madras Music Academy concert in 1954, when he was unexpectedly forced to substitute his Guru, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who was not in a position to attend the conference under unforeseen circumstances. Accompanied by doyens Palghat Mani Iyerand Papa Venkataramayya, this concert proved to be a milestone in Narayanaswamy’s career. The training under Palghat Mani Iyer allowed KVN to develop a solid knowledge of rhythmic nuances. This in turn would enable him to be at ease in the company of such legends of percussion asPalani Subramaniam Pillai, Palghat R. Raghu, Mavelikkara Velukkutty Nair, and Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman to name a few. KVN, Palghat R. Raghu and violin maestro T.N.Krishnan would soon become a frequent and much admired combination on stage.
K.V.Narayanaswamy was intimately connected to the Travancore Royal Family following his skillful rendition of Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma‘sNavaratri compositions. Another landmark in KVN’s life came in 1964 when he participated in the East-West Encounter concerts in New Delhi. This was followed by a widely acclaimed concert at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland in 1965.
On being made professor of music at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, between 1965–67, he went on a coast-to-coast concert tour ofUSA. He was one of four artists including Bismillah Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, and Ravi Shankar who participated in the hugely popular Hollywood Bowlmusic festival in Los Angeles in the summer of 1967.In 1974, KVN went to teach in Berkeley, California for a year, in the company of dancerBalasaraswati and sitarist Nikhil Banerjee. Invited by the American Society of Eastern Arts, he traveled to North America, Europe (Berlin Music Festival in 1976) and Australia (Adelaide Arts Festival in 1988) multiple times thereafter on various concert tours. He also joined the Music College inMadras as a lecturer in 1962 when Musiri Subramania Iyer was its principal, and retired as Professor of Music in 1982.In 1984, Narayanaswamy was to become the first Indian musician to be awarded the Fulbright Scholarship and went to San Diego State University in California as an artist-in-residence under the scholarship. For nine months he taught at the university and gave performances all over North America.
Though Narayanaswamy’s singing bore his master Ariyakudi’s Bani, over the years he evolved a unique style of his own. Strict classicism and blemish-less singing are some of the obvious facets of his music. His vast repertoire included songs that encompassed every genre, a number of languages and composers belonging to different ages. Endaro Mahanubhavulu in Sri Ragam, Sri Subrahmanya Namaste in Kambhoji, Bala gopala in Bhairavi, Satatam Tavaka in Kharaharapriya, Pahi Janani in Natakuranji, Enneramum in rāga Devagandhari, Pirava varam tarum inLatangi and Kanavendamo in Sriranjani are some of the songs that have come to bear his distinct signature. “The depth of emotion and the pathos he invested in singing certain compositions of Gopalakrishna Bharathi, especially VarugalAmo ayya and his incomparable and unique presentation of Krishna nee beganey in the style of Jayammal and Balasaraswati, in which he caressed the words and phrases exquisitely and had the audience in a trance as if he were a pied piper” are noteworthy. Strict adherence to Shruthi (musical pitch), lyrical purity and a poignant rendition were distinctive features of KVN’s music.
Some of KVN’s leading disciples were Padma Narayanaswamy, renowned flautist Shashank Subramanyam, vocalist K.V.Ananthan, violinist and vocalist Hemmige V.Srivatsan, Padma Sandilyan, Hemmige S.Prashanth, Pattabhiraman Pandit M.R.Subramaniam, T S Ranganathan, Manipallavam K.Sarangan and Balaji Prasath.
In 1948 KVN married Palghat Mani Iyer‘s cousin Annapoorni. They had three daughters and a son: Muktha, Lalitha, Viswanathan and Ramaa. By a stroke of misfortune Annapoorni died in 1962. In 1965 Narayanaswamy married Padma, a talented musician and disciple who continues to train her husband’s students in his style. Their daughter Anuradha is a trained vocalist and television actor.
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on March 31, 2013
Title: Rajas Reise (Rajas Journey) – 77 minutes
Director: Karl Saurer
Script: Elena M. Fischli, Karl Sauer
Camera: Matthias Kälin, Boney Keyar, Hansueli Schenkel
Sound: Christian Beusch, Shiju, José Sojen, Martin Witz
Editing: Loredana Cristelli
Music: Mafalda Arnauth, Giuseppe Laruccia, Ajit Singh
Production: Reck Filmproduktion
by Karl Saurer
Born in 1943 in Einsiedeln. Studied in Zurich, Munich, Cologne and Osnabrück. 1979 Receives MA in media, literature and psychology. Since 1970 works as film publicist in Switzerland and Germany. 1980-84 Works as lecturer in the Script Department and as staff member at DFFB (Deutschen Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin). Lecturer at universities and film schools. Screenwriter and director of fiction and documentary films.
2011 AHIMSA – DIE STÄRKE VON GEWALTFREIHEIT
2007 RAJAS REISE
1997 STEINAUER NEBRASKA
1993 DER TRAUM VOM GROSSEN BLAUEN WASSER
1992 KEBAB & ROSOLI
1991 HOLZ SCHLAIKE MID ROSS
1982 DAS UNBEHAGEN AN DER VERGANGENHEIT
1982 DER HUNGER, DER KOCH UND DAS PARADIES
1976 DAS BROT DES BÄCKERS
1975 TATORT LUZERN ODER WEM GEHÖREN UNSERE STÄDTE
1975 KAISERAUGST
1973 ES DRÄNGEN SICH KEINE MASSNAHMEN AUF
1972 RUHE
1970 DAS KLEINE WELTTHEATER
EAN 7640139361431
ISAN 0000-0001-BF3B-0000-9-0000-0000-A
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(PV Rajagopal is the leader of the Indian movement and grassroots NGO “Ekta Parishad” which attracted international attention by the non-violent walk in 2012 (see Jan Satyagraha 2012 March campaign).)
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on March 30, 2013
Born in 1947 in Calcutta, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri received tabla training from early childhood. He was later trained in the Lucknow Gharana with Pandit Santosh Krishna Biswas and today is one of the best known tabla players of India. He is highly regarded both in solo performances as well as having accompanied some of India’s most distinguished musicians, including Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009) and Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012). Swapan Chaudhuri is currently the Director of Percussion at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, and also teaches during the annual seminars of the Ali Akbar College of Music in Basel, Switzerland. (Source: Ali Akbar College of Music)
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“…the controlled virtuosity of Swapan’s (Tabla) playing always implied that if he cared, nothing could stop him. What display he put on…!” —San Francisco Chronicle, USA
Esteemed the world over for his purity of sound, depth of knowledge, rhythmic creativity, and dedication to teaching, Maestro Swapan Chaudhuri is considered one of the greatest living musicians and tabla virtuosos of our time. He continues to accompany all the eminent classical instrumental and vocal musicians of India in addition to collaborating with artists of every world music tradition and genre. His dedication to teaching tabla worldwide has brought him global recognition and defined him as a true master. He has made tabla more accessible, enabling this North Indian classical drum to take its rightful place as one of the most versatile and sought after instruments on the planet.
As a soloist, Swapan’s nuanced and lyrical ability to bring even the most complex and challenging compositions to life gives audiences a rare glimpse into the depth and majesty of tabla’s vast repertoire. Both his accompaniment and his recordings are prized for their clarity and improvisational beauty. Two records, Legacy (1997) and Passing on the Tradition (1998), were nominated for Grammy awards, on which Swapancollaborated with Asha Bhosle and Maestro Ali Akbar Khan.
Swapan is cherished and honored in his homeland of India, where in 2011 he was awarded a National Lifetime Achievement Award, the Bharat Ke Sangeet Ratna, by the Art & Cultural Trust of India. He is a recipient of the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award (1997) from the Government of India. Internationally, Swapan is the recipient of the American Academy of Artists Award and is nominee to Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, distinctions reserved for only those musicians who have attained the highest level of artistry.
As Director of Percussion at the Ali Akbar College of Music for over 30 years and Department Chairperson / Senior Faculty of the World Music Program at the California Institute of the Arts for the past 20 years, Swapanji has taught tabla with an unmatched level of dedication. It is an extension of the kind of intensive and dedicated teaching that was bestowed upon him by his own legendary Guru, Acharya Santosh Krishna Biswas of the Lucknow Gharana (music school), whom Swapan learned with since the age of five in Kolkata, India. It was his early development as an accompanist to the great sarodist Maestro Ali Akbar Khan that led him to become the accompanist of choice for India’s greatest classical artists including Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, the late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, L. Shankar, Dr. Balmurli Krishna, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Dr. L. Subramanium, Lakshmi Shankar, Pandit V.G. Jog, and many others. In 1981, Swapanji was invited to the United States by Maestro Ali Akbar Khan to serve as Director of Percussion at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California, where he continues to teach today.
Swapanji’s meteoric rise as a performer and teacher of Classical Indian music led to international musical collaborations with such renowned artists as Stevie Wonder, Mark O’Connor, John Handy, Larry Coryell, John Santos, the Lian Ensemble, the reputed Persian musicians Alizade and Kayhan Kalhor, the African drum master, Malenga, and the renowned guitarists, Vlatko Stefanovski and Miroslav Tadic.
He has been the featured artist at the San Francisco International Music Festival (2010 – 2012), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exposition on the city of Lucknow (2011), the Darbar Music Festival in London (2008 – 2012), Global Encounters at Carnegie Hall (2007), and numerous international music festivals of cities including Sao Paolo, Rio de Janiero, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Kuala Lampur, Stuttgart and Berlin. He has composed for several percussion ensembles, featuring up to 20 world percussionists, which have received tremendous appreciation from Western as well as Indian audiences.
He is associated with many American and European Universities as a visiting professor, and maintains a rigorous touring, teaching and recording schedule throughout the year.
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on March 27, 2013
Dear musical friends !
… 1st I wish you a HAPPY HOLI ! – May your life go colourful ahead.
Its a funny coincidence that exactly on today and seven (7) years ago I started my first radio show for Indian Classics with the topic “Seasonal Ragas – Spring ragas” (see playlist: http://bit.ly/jU1GOw ).
You still can relisten the show in IMC’s online archive (free of charge):http://www.imcradio.net/radioarchive/2006/03
Tks for all who walked on this uniquely path over last years alongside my activities and those of promotion initiative IMC – India meets Classic, which was founded in January 2005 - http://www.imcradio.net/about .
After single broadcastings in November/December in 2005 and a conceptual period of three months the test phase of regularly, monthly broadcasting started on 26th March 2006 at 03:00 pm CET (10:00 am EST / 07:30 pm Indian time) @ TIDE Radio in Hanseatic City Hamburg.
Since then more than 100 radio shows (uniquely topics) had been produced with more than 500 broadcasting hours onair (meanwhile in Austria, Switzerland and Germany via FM/cable and web radio) -http://www.imcradio.net/shortprofile .
On HOLI 2013 as the annually spring fest of India the promotion initiative IMC – India meets Classic starts its 8th year of independent media productions… a good sign I would say ! 
Thank’s to all my listeners around the globe and to all artists of Indian music ! – Let us share our musical passion further on…
Warm greetings by heart
ElJay A. from Hanseatic City Hamburg
(CEO/Founder/Chief Editor/Cultural Journalist)
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on March 25, 2013
English: Brics Flags (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The BRICS summit 2013 is scheduled to take place in Durban, South Africa on 26th and 27th March.
The BRICS grouping (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) helds annual summits since 2009, with member countries taking turns to host. Prior to South Africa’s admission, two BRIC summits were held, in 2009 and 2010.
The first five-member BRICS summit was held in 2011. The most recent summit took place in New Delhi, India, on March 29, 2012. (Wikipedia.org)
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South Africa will host the fifth BRICS Summit from 26 to 27 March 2013 at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC). This will complete the first cycle of BRICS summits.
These summits are convened to seek common ground on areas of importance for these major economies. Talks represent spheres of political and entrepreneurial coordination, in which member countries have identified several business opportunities, economic complementarities and areas of cooperation.
English: The BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Português: As Potências regionais. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
BRICS is an acronym for the powerful grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The first BRIC Summit took place in Yekateringburg, Russia, where the elected leaders of the four countries formally declared the membership of the BRIC economic bloc. South Africa joined the bloc in 2010, resulting in BRICS.
The BRICS mechanism aims to achieve peace, security, development and cooperation. It also seeks to contribute significantly to the development of humanity and establish a more equitable and fair world.
Search Results for “Culture”:
Posted on March 25, 2013 at 3:11 pm.
Written by Thuli Masuku
Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Members of the media. Thank you for attending this media briefing ahead of the historic 5th BRICS Summit which is being held on South African soil for the first time. But before we discuss that important matter, … Continued
Posted on March 25, 2013 at 8:29 am.
Written by Thuli Masuku
1. ITAR-TASS: Brics‘ relatively new phenomenon attracts increased global attention due to the optimistic predictions about its development, especially against the backdrop of global crisis developments in the world economy. What is Brics’ immediate and long-term significance for Russia? Is … Continued
Posted on March 20, 2013 at 11:18 am.
Written by Thuli Masuku
Food security will be high on the agenda at the 5th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit in Durban next week, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said during a roadshow on the summit in Nelspruit, … Continued
Posted on March 18, 2013 at 8:42 am.
Written by Thuli Masuku
Yacoob Abba Omar When you are outside of government, it is very tempting make jokes about the various acronyms that fly around and the institutions they supposedly represent. Okay, we all know what the UN or the G20 is, but … Continued
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 11:43 am.
Written by Rene
Programme Director, Members of the Diplomatic Community, Consular Representatives from BRICS Member States Members of the Business Community and Captains of Industry, Members of the Academia and Think-Tanks, Members of the Media, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to …Continued
Posted on February 28, 2013 at 1:07 pm.
Written by Rene
BRIC(S) is the only grouping whose name was coined by a Wall Street-based finance company in 2001, while predicting a shift in global economic power, away from the developed G7 countries towards the developing world. It was, however, the shared … Continued
Posted on February 27, 2013 at 10:04 am.
Written by Rene
A letter from Tswhane Pretoria News 26/02/2013 BRICS – Why South Africa’s Citizens Should Care By Millar Matola When South Africa plays host to the prestigious 5th BRICS Summit from 26 to 27 March in Durban, this will be a … Continued
Posted on February 26, 2013 at 3:20 pm.
Written by Rene
Media Advisory 26 February 2013 The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, who also serves as a member of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on BRICS, will address the Northern Cape Province’s BRICS roadshow. The purpose of the roadshow … Continued
Posted on February 25, 2013 at 11:53 am.
Written by Thuli Masuku
Programme Director, Minister Derek Hanekom (Science and Technology) Excellencies, Ambassadors of Brazil, India, and China Ambassador Matjila, (Director General in the Department of International Relations) Members of EXCO Gauteng, Executive Mayors Representatives of Business, Stakeholders, Members of Media, Ladies and … Continued
Posted on February 14, 2013 at 9:02 am.
Written by Thuli Masuku
PRESS RELEASE North West Premier Thandi Modise is upbeat about the first BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) EXPO and International Trade and Tourism Conference that her province will be hosting. The four-day International Investor conference is scheduled to … Continued
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Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on March 25, 2013
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a centre of research, teaching and experimental design. In addition to conserving, researching into and passing on the Bauhaus heritage the Foundation focuses on cities – their contradictions and cultural strength in the face of demographic developments, globalisation and the technological revolution.
Wednesday, 27th March until Sunday, 30st June 2013
Opening on Tuesday, 26th March, 7pm
Posted in Culture (news) | Leave a Comment »
Posted by ElJay Arem (IMC OnAir) on March 22, 2013
Pandit Prasun Banerjee (Bengali: প্রসুন ব্যানার্জী) (c. Aug 15, 1926 – 22 March 1997) was a Hindustani classical vocalist, from the Patiala Gharana. (Source: © 03/2013 - Wikipedia.org)
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While there is no dearth of names in Hindustani Classical Music that have dominated the annals of musical history, there were some extraordinary virtuosos who made waves in their time, but whose names today have slipped from public memory. This new feature is an attempt to revive that kind of vintage music.
(photo credit: ITC Sangeet Research Academy)
Born on August 15, 1926 at Patna, Prasun Banerjee had the good fortune to grow up listening to the great stalwarts of Hindustani vocal music who used to frequently visit his hometown. The urge to learn properly, drove him to Kolkata when he was twenty, giving up Physics, the subject in which he was graduating. He took rigorous talim in the Guru-shishya parampara, first from Pandit Jamini Ganguly and later Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. His selection as an `A` grade artiste of All India Radio was instantaneous.
In 1957 he married Meera Chatterjee, a contemporary and exceptional classical vocalist. Soon, both of them became disciples of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. The result was history. Hailed as the torchbearer of the Patiala-Kasur gayaki immortalised by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Prasun Banerjee`s music touched the hearts of innumerable listeners.
In the early seventies, he taught classical music at the Calcutta School of Music and other institutions of repute. A recipient of the ITC award (1994) and the Bhuwalka award (1995), he was an exceptional composer and had also sung for films, notable among them being `Jadubhatta`.
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Posted in Culture (news), IMC OnAir - News | 1 Comment »
