Two-day musical soiree ‘Virasat’ concludes at Tagore Theatre

Two-day musical soiree ‘Virasat’ concludes at Tagore Theatre

By Ramesh K Dhiman

CHANDIGARH

Virasat, a two-day musical soiree jointly organized the Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, Kalashree, Delhi and Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Academy, concluded at the Tagore Theatre here on Saturday with melodic notes, besides scintillating folk dances of Punjab performed on the occasion.

The programme encapsulating varied colours of folk music and folk dances presented on the occasion kept the audience hooked to their seats for hours..

Packed with diverse genres of music, the two-day musical fiesta was a treat for the tricity music lovers.

The programme on the concluding day had on stage Chandigarh’s acclaimed artiste Pandit Subhash Ghosh who enthralled the audience with his ‘Swarragini’ which was followed by fascinating folk dances of Punjab, which the city audience.
Ghosh, a City resident and a disciple of Padmavibhushna awardee Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, a legend in his own right.

Ghosh, an ‘A’ grade artiste of the All-India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, is a wizard of music, who has performed all over India and abroad. Ghosh is the brain behind creating ‘Saraswani’ instrument which is a blend of sitar, sarod and veena. Later he created a unique musical instrument, a mix of South Indian Veena and Sarod.

Ghosh started the evening with raag ‘Bihag’ which evoked humungous appreciation from the audience for his power-packed presentation synchronising with melodious notes of raag Jhala, ending up with the traditional ‘Aalap’. He presented the ‘ragas’ with incredible precision which reflected his mastery over ‘Tantric’ parts of the instrument he played on. He received a full-throated encomium for his layakari. He also presented the compositions immortalised by Ustad Rashid Khan in raag Saraswati. The maestro went on to presenting a folk composition of Punjab on the occasion coinciding with the festival of Lohri.

Accompanying him on tabla was Delhi’s young tabla virtuoso Zaheen Khan who added more charm to the presentation with his craft.

Up next to hop on the stage was the Punjabi Bhangra team which set it on fire took with its powerful presentation under the direction of Peter Sodhi. Bhangra artistes clad in colourful costumes took the audience by storm. Dance lovers could not hold them back from gyrating to the beats of drum.

At the end of the program all the artistes were honoured.

On this occasion, Secretary of the Kendra Sajal Koser, Kathak Guru and Registrar of the Kendra Dr. Shobha Koser, Curator of this program Dr. Kavita Thakur along with CSNA Chairman Sudesh Sharma were among those present on the occasion.