WESTON, MA– LearnQuest Music Conference kicks-off this week with three Lecture-demonstrations, which is part of the music school’s 11th annual Music Conference and Festival. Classical musician and Sarod legend Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will be the main featured artist during the festival that will be held from March 25 through March 27, 2016, at Regis College in Weston, MA.
Here is information on Lecture-Demonstrations (led-dem):
Wed, March 23 – Wedding songs of North India, by Shuchita Rao
In the lec-dem titled “Wedding Songs of North India”, Shuchita Rao will explore various types of songs sung at specific rituals that constitute a North Indian Hindu wedding such as Mehendi, Ganesh Puja, Jai-maal, Saat-phere and Bidaai. The lecture will include short video excerpts of the rituals, performance of Hindi wedding songs by Shuchita and her students from LearnQuest and Rasa School of Music, live dancing as well as a lesson on Garba dance from the state of Gujarat by Minerva and Radha (students of Guru Veena Teli).
The one hour long program to be performed on Wednesday, March 23 between 7pm and 8pm will be held at the Marshall Room, 2nd floor, College of Fine Arts, 855 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215. The event is organized in collaboration with Brita Heimarck and Victor Coelho, chair of department of Musicology at Boston University.
Accompanists: Shri Mohitosh Talukder Taposh on harmonium and Shri Vijay Mohan on dholak will provide accompaniment for the singing.
Thursday, March 24 – The Ubiquitous role of tabla in Indian music, by Pandit Supreet Deshpande
Accompanists: Jay Gandhi – flute, student of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya, Shuchta Rao – vocal, Ishwari Deshpande – Kathak dance
Music globally is built on Melody and Rhythm. Indian music has a unique concept called Taal which gives a cyclic perspective to rhythm. India has several percussion instruments; Tabla is the youngest of them all.
In the Lec-Dem on March 24th at MIT, Pt. Supreet Deshpande, one of the foremost Tabla exponents of his generation, will speak about the origin of Tabla, the gharana concept, the language of Tabla, great masters of this instrument and then, demonstrate the ubiquitous role of Tabla as an accompanying instrument to vocal, instrumental music and Kathak dance. Supreet ji would also speak on the aesthetics of Tabla as a solo and accompanying instrument in a variety of music and how audience can appreciate its nuances. He will also present some rare recordings of great masters and how Tabla accompaniment has evolved over several centuries. This Lec-Dem would be of interest to both initiated and less initiated audience and will be of special interest to the students of Indian and Western music.
Friday, March 25 – Music of the Sitar, by Manju Mehta
Accompanist: Amit Kavthekar on tabla
In this two hour lec-dem, Vidushi Manju Mehta will talk about and demonstrate various musical sounds such as “meend”, grace notes and krintan that are produced on a sitar. She will also expound on different two main styles of sitar playing, namely the Gayaki Ang played by the Ustad Vilayat Khan’s school and the Tantrakari Ang played by Pt. Ravi Shankar school of sitar playing.
