Sur Taal Sangam At Phoenix Gharana
Contributed By - Rhea Rungta
Yearly in Phoenix Arizona, there is a classical Indian music festival held by Phoenix Gharana School of Indian Arts based in Scottsdale Arizona. It is called the Pt. Kashinath Bodas Festival and invites classical Indian artists from all over the world to come and put on a wonderful performance to share with aspiring singers. To start off the wonderful night was a very talented and stunning dancer, Deepti Athalye who had an amazing stage presence. She captured everyone’s attention with her perfect posture and beautiful outfit. The true magic happened, though, when she started dancing. Her movements - so precise and strong. Her expressions - astounding! Even if one cannot understand the meaning of the music, her genuine facial expressions can tell you what she wants to say.
After her energizing performance, another debutant of Guru Manu Srivastava, Srivatsan Iyer, came to give a stellar performance. Although a bit nervous in the outset, as he continued singing he became more and more confident shaking off his nerves. There was one time when he was singing fast paced that he made the notes a bit longer, letting you hover in the air before he came back down and you met with gravity and the ground. It was so well-done and unique!. With such passion towards music, he will, for sure, be even better in the future.
Next up was a renowned sitar player, Shri Prasad Jogalekar. He knew the instrument like the back of his hand and could move his nimble fingers to change the tempo, surprising the listeners with such sweet melodies. The last song that he played by himself was so rich yet delicate that I could hear it all day. Then both Shri Prasad Jogalekar and a tabla player, Shri Shankachur Lahiri, came together to create even more breathtaking music. While playing together, they would sometimes contrast each other so the other could have the spotlight. Watching them you could tell that they loved what they were doing with small smiles and nods at the other. Then, finally, to finish up the night, we ended with a performance by Smt. Rachna Bodas. I feel that this performance really energized the crowd. Her singing issued an uncountable number of applauses and exclamations from the crowd. Another aspect I liked about when she was singing, was how she was so supportive. She realized that her performance wouldn’t be as brilliant without Prafulla Bhai and Shri Neelamjit Dhillon, so she nodded appreciatively at them every time they did something unique. Overall, I thought her performance was beautiful with her rich but light voice.
The next day, we started off again with Smt. Deepti Athalye. She was just as amazing as yesterday and was so humble even though there were some technical difficulties. Next up was a sarod player, Shri Souryadeep Bhattacharyya. When this gypsy at heart played, I had goosebumps all over me. His dynamics were always on point, albeit sometimes sudden, but enhancing his style. I also loved how he had sweet short grace notes that slid up to just the right pitch. He would create rifts while still keeping a steady beat and having a concentrated, focused expression. Another thing he did was completely changing the mood of the song and then coming right back in a complex but perfect way.
After his solo, we had both him and Shri Shankachur Lahiri play together. I particularly liked their last song which would remind you of the sweetest song ever and was such a classic melody
To keep up the excitement in the crowd, Rajib Karmakar and Shri Shankachur Lahiri played for us a very unique, classical style, with a little modern twist which was distinctively Rajib’s. Then, to end this mesmerizing weekend, came Guru Manu Srivastava and three of his students, including Srivatsan Iyer singing a rarely sung “anvat” raag Jaitshree set to a rarely sung jhoomra taal. The development to the raag was well constructed and nuances of traditional Gwalior and Jaipur Gharana could be seen.
The “Kansens” of Phoenix were carefully listening and applauding the great ambiance the raag created. They were very smooth and expressive in body movement and expressions. First the Guru would sing and then he would pass it on to one of his disciples to pick up. It made me smile seeing the harmony between the teacher and the students and how it seemed so perfect and natural. This was a much anticipated performance by all and was more marvelous than I would ever have thought. With that conclusion to our festival, we left home with ringing sounds of an enchanted weekend of classical Indian music.