A stirring sitar recital by Ustad Hafiz Bale Khan and Hindustani vocal performance by Mahuya Mukherjee marked the ‘Music for Harmony’ concert at Alliance Francaise on Friday.
The event was co-hosted by the Delhi-based Noble Art Documentation and Development (NADD) Foundation, the regional chapter of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and the National Foundation for Communal Harmony.
The sitar maestro explored the Purvikalyani raga (teen taal) accompanied by Durjay Bhaumik on tabla and Gopalkrishna on second sitar.
Hafiz Bale Khan hails from the Dharwad Kirana Gharana and is an artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan.
The Hindustani vocal concert by Mahuya Mukherjee, one of the foremost exponents of the Patiala Gharana, featured two compositions in raag Bihag following it up with the lighter raag Pilu with another in Bhairavi to conclude the performance.
The vocalist was accompanied by Bhaumik, who has accompanied stalwarts and performed on stages across the world, and Jagadeesan on the harmonium.
Earlier, inaugurating the programme, veteran musician Arimalam S. Padmanabhan, rendered from verses of Subramania Bharati’s Kuyil Pattu in which the poetexalts music to the greatest of all Godly creations. Satish Nallam, Alliance Francaise president, said the concert was the first of several cultural events planned for the months ahead. J. Gopal, IGNCA director, felicitated the artists.
According to NADD Foundation, the performance was part of the foundation’s multi-city series of ‘Music for Harmony’ concerts showcasing leading classical musicians to bring together diverse peoples through the unifying power of music.
