The Whitefield Music Festival organized by Ananda Dhwani, a nonprofit organisation promoting Indian Classical Music and Dance, ended on Nov 18, after hosting a line-up of 28 artists with a full house for two days.
The festival kicked off with the mesmerizing jugalbandi concert between Vid. Mysore Manjunath (Carnatic Violin) & Ud. Murad Ali (Sarangi), accompanied by Pt. Ojas Adhiya (Tabla), Vid. Bangalore Praveen (Mridangam) and Somnath Roy (Ghatam), followed by Kathakali & Chhau Jugalbandi, directed and choreographed by Vid. Prabal Gupta on Day 1.
Dr. Suma Sudhindra & Pt. Prabir Bhattacharya took over the stage, the next day, on Nov 18, for their jugalbandi performance, accompanied by Pt. Subhankar Banerjee (Tabla), Vid. K. U. Jayachandra Rao (Mridangam) and Giridhar Udupa (Ghatam)
The music festival came to an end with a Jasrangi Concert by Pta. Ashwini Vide Deshpande & Pt. Sanjeev Abhayankar. Accompanying this act were artists Rohit Mujumdar (Tabla), Ajinkya Joshi (Tabla), Milind Kulkarni (Harmonium), and Abhinay Ravande (Harmonium).
Speaking about the success of the event, Ishita Dutta, Trustee, Ananda Dhwani said, “It was really heartening to see a full house for a classical concert which is very rare in this day and time when most of our lives are occupied with work.”
She further added, “You do not daily come across concerts where two musicians perform on different ragas at the same time or a jugalbandi between Kathakali and Chhau dance art forms, right? I would like to definitely give a special mention to Pt. Prabir Bhattacharya and Indranil Biswas for curating such a unique blend of skills.”
