Kolkata in focus at nat’l music fest inauguration

| | BHUBANESWAR
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Kolkata in focus at nat’l music fest inauguration

Thursday, 21 November 2019 | SHYAMHARI CHAKRA | BHUBANESWAR

The inaugural evening on Tuesday of the much-awaited annual national music festival of Bhubaneswar Music Circle, being held at the Rabindra Mandap here, was a celebration of three top-ranked artists of Kolkata and of Hindustani classical music as well.

Performing for the first time in the city, Kolkata-based gifted vocalist Pandit Tushar Dutta, who opened the festival with his mellifluous recital, won hearts of the connoisseurs. His concert commenced with rendition of raag Jog followed by his personal favourite raag Jhinjhoti and concluded with a Meera bhajan. The unassuming musician, who had started learning fundamentals of Indian classical music from Pt Bimal Mitra of Durgapurat an early age and was later groomed at the famed ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata as a scholar under stalwarts of Kirana gharana and Agra ghrana, sang from the heart and, thus, touched the hearts of his audience striking a perfect balance between emotion and technique in his renditions.

A top-grade artist of All India Radio, who has received the Radio Mirchi Music Award as the best upcoming male vocalist for a Bengali film song, has performed at a number of prestigious music conferences all over India that include Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan, ITC Sangeet Sammelan, Saptak, Ahmedabad and Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, Pune. He has also performed abroad in the US, the UK, Canada, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France, UAE, Oman, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The second performer of the evening, Vidushi Anjana Nath, also a top-grade artiste of All India Radio, has already been familiar to the city’s classical music connoisseurs, being featured earlier in the Odisha Government’s most prestigious Rajarani Music Festival and Bhubaneswar Music Circle annual festival as well. Known for her on-stage and spontaneous innovations in renditions, she belongs to the distinct Patiala gharana that owes its origin to legendary Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Trained under stalwarts like Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, she was also a scholar at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata and was also a topper in the Khayal and Thumri competitions organised by the prestigious Dover Lane Music Conference.

Her concert comprised raag Maru Bihag followed by a thumri set to raag Piloo and a dadra set to raag Bhairavi. She presented her disciple Laxmipriya Nayak, a talented and young vocalist from Odisha, as her supporting vocalist much to the cheer of the Odisha audience.

Accomplished artist Somen Poddar, who accompanied both the vocalists of the evening on harmonium, deserves a special mention. It was his skillful playing of the instrument that added beauty to the soulful vocal renditions.  As accompanying artistes on table, Tapas Paul and Indranil Mallick were at their best.

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