Celebrating the cosmic flow of emotions, music has the ability to bring forth our shared values of unconditional love, peace and harmony. For, within the beauty of melodies and rhythm, lie the totem of our spiritual existence. Apart from being the language of the soul, music channels our divine energy and enables us to connect with purity. The transcendental nature of music has mesmerised many a musicians in the past. So, it comes as no surprise that the Premaanjali foundation decided to name the eighth edition of their music festival, The Divine Resonance, which will be held on June 8 at the Christ University Auditorium.
This year, the festival will bring together five renowned maestros including Pandit Rajendra Prasanna on shehnai, Ustad Sarwar Hussain on sarangi, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan on sitar, U Srinivas on mandolin, and Padma Vibhshan Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on santoor. Revelling in the essence of divinity, the festival promises to take one on a timeless journey of intricate melodies and soothing compositions. Apart from experimenting with rich chords, melodic
cadences and arching musical structures; the performances will also be rooted in ancient tradition and history.
Speaking about the festival, A Balakrishna Hegde, Chairman, Premaanjali Foundation said, “Premaa-njali Festival was envisioned with a two-fold objective. One, to augment funding for the Trust and the other, equally important objective was to bring some of the best cultural masterpieces to Bangalore. Over the past few years, we have ahd maestros including Dr Balamuralikrishna, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Dr Mallika Sarabhai perform at the festival. Likewise, it was a truly ‘Heaven on Earth’ experience, when sitar maestro, Bharat Rathna Pandit Ravi Shankar accompanied by his daughter Anoushka Shankar bid adieu to the garden city in 2012, which prophetically turned out to be his last public performance in India."
The evening will commence with a jugalbandi by Pandit Rajendra Prasanna, the fifth generation Shehnai player who is known for his playful vivacity and soul stirring ragas and Sarangi exponent Ustad Sarwar Hussain.
The silken patterns and complementing tones of the Shehnai and Sarangi jugalbandi will instill an overwhelming sense of tranquility in all. In the later part of the evening, music connoisseurs will be treated to another jugalbandi by Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, sitar player, along with Mandolin U Srinivas. The rare battle of sounds between Hindustani and Carnatic genre will be the highlight of the evening.
The grand finale will witness a jaw-dropping solo by Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, the santoor maestro, who is all set to weave magic out of melodies and tones.
m akshatha@newindianexpress.com