As a tribute to the legendary musician Pandit Ravishankar, Goethe Zentrum, Thiruvananthapuram, is organising a Sitar-Tabla concert on Friday, February 22 at 7 PM the centre’s amphitheater. Renowned Sitar player Shri Kushal Das will perform together with the noted German Tabla artist Florian Schiertz.
Born in 1973 in Singen, Florian Schiertz comes from an artistic background, as both his parents are active in the field of fine arts. He received piano lessons at the age of seven and at fourteen he started learning drums. In 1988 he was attracted to the tabla through seeing Trilok Gurtu who notated a composition for him after a concert. He worked with Latin American music, Indonesian gamelan, jazz and traditional western classical music.
Kushal Das, a north Indian solo sitarist, was born to a musically inclined family of Calcutta. His grandfather Late Bimal Das was a renowned Esraj player while his father Shri Sailen Das and uncle Sri Santanu Das are sitarists of high repute. Kushal received intensive and rigorous training in advanced sitar techniques and the art of music making under the affectionate guidance of Prof. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay, the renowned sitar maestro and academician. He also had the proud privilege of having learnt from great musicians like, Pt. Manas Chakraborty, Pt. Ramkrishna Basu and Late Pt. Ajoy Sinha Roy.
Entry is free, but restricted by passes. Passes can be collected from Zentrum.