Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar has made San Diego his home for many years now and it was only fitting that this city paid tribute to the living legend in grand style recently. The Indian Fine Arts Academy, San Diego (IFAASD), spearheaded by Shekar Viswanathan, organised its fourth annual music and dance festival from April 14 to 17. It featured 64 artistes from India, the United States of America and Muscat.
The felicitation ceremony on April 16 saw Pandit Ravi Shankar and three other veterans — R.K. Srikantan, M. Balamuralikrishna and N. Ramani — being honoured for their contribution to music. V.V. Sundaram, a promoter of culture, musician Geetha Bennett and T.S.R. Krishnan, a scholar from California, felicitated the artistes.
Council member Sherri S. Lightner, president of La Jolla Town Council and La Jolla Shores Association, presented the Proclamation of the City Council to Shekar Viswanathan, secretary of IFAASD “in appreciation of the heritage represented by the Indian Music and Dance Festival.”
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Priti Gandhi, a native of Mumbai and a well-known opera singer, paid tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar by singing the national anthems of USA and India. She also performed an aria. Playback singer and composer Shankar Mahadevan dedicated his brief but memorable performance to the sitar maestro.
A short video of rare and unseen footage from Pt. Ravi Shankar’s career was also screened during the course of the evening.
The four-day arts festival commenced on April 14 with ‘Bamboo Melodies’ by Shashank Subramanyam, followed by a programme titled ‘Generations of Genius’ that featured M. Balamuralikrishna and Chitravina N. Ravikiran. The 'Ramayana: Bala Kandam' (music and lyric by N. Ravikiran and choreography by Savithri Jagannatha Rao), part of an original five-part series to be premiered at the Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival, 2011, was showcased here. Thirteen dancers from India, the U.S. and Muscat, including an orchestra of eight musicians, participated in this dance ballet. Other programmes featured included ‘Flights of Fantasy’ by Ganesh-Kumaresh (violin duo), ‘Mesmerising Melodies’ by R.K. Srikantan, and ‘Margam’, a Bharathanatyam programme by Lavanya Ananth.
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In a well co-ordinated effort, more than 100 young students of Carnatic music, trained by San Diego teachers C.M. Venkatachalam and Revathi Subramanian, sang in one voice.