Lakshyapar celebrates monsoon with classical music

Artistes of Lakshyapar perform at the programme.

Classical music organisation “Lakshyapar” celebrated monsoon with an exceptional initiative, titled “Camping with Classical Music”. Held in the beautiful campus of BACE (Bangladesh Association of Community Education) Training Centre, Sonargaon, the programme was focused on 'Exploring the Voice: Western and Sub-continental Methods'. The two trends were respectively dealt with by A.K. Azad, a music student of San Bernardino Valley College, California and Dr. Rezwan Ali of Chhayanaut.
Tuli, one of the fifteen students who participated in the July 2-3 camp, was bubbling with enthusiasm as she said, “I am really fortunate to have been in the camp. It has changed my whole system of belief about the possibilities of the human voice.” Both the trainers were of the opinion that if such camps are stretched up to two annual cycles of seven days, young musicians would flourish with great potential.
Just a day after the camp ended at dusk on July 3, Lakshyapar hosted one of its regular programmes. Titled “Megh Badoler Raag”, it was the monsoon session of classical music, one of their four seasonal ventures. On the evening of July 5, the curtain raised with a group composition of three ragas -- Bhimpalashree, Yaman and Bhoopali -- sung by the trainees. The compact performance of the children showed that the efforts of Dr. Rezwan Ali for the last two years are showing results.
Up next was a demonstration lecture on the ragas of monsoon and their influence in Nazrul songs. This part was presented and performed by Dr. Fakir Suman. He took two main ragas of the season – Megh and Mian Ki Malhar, for demonstration. After some elaborations and improvisations on these ragas, Dr. Suman gradually cited famous songs of Nazrul and sang them to show how they bore Nazrul's base of and command over the North Indian classical music.
The last performance came from young sitarist Nishit Dey, who began his presentation with raga “Mian Ki Mallar”. His gradual unhurried exposition of the raga through variations of short and long phrases of notes absorbed the audience sitting in the blue light of the Narayanganj High School auditorium. The curtain fell with Nishit's recital of raga “Bhairabi”, reminding connoisseurs of the gharana he belongs to. Sabuj Ahmed accompanied both the artistes on tabla.
In the middle, there was Haradhan-Sukhen Scholarship distribution. Veteran educationist K. Zaman handed over the scholarships to six winners of last year's classical music competition. The programme was presented by Shaswati Pal.
Radio Lakshyapar (www.lakshyapar.org) and four other online stations simultaneously aired the programme live, reaching over ten thousand audiences over the internet.