A trio of accomplished musicians will push the boundaries of improvisation at an east-meets-west concert at Auroville on Wednesday.
The concert will feature Vikku Vinayakram, Grammy award-winning Carnatic percussionist, on ghatam and his grandson S. Swaminathan on kanjira, who will play with Nadaka, Aurovilian musician of international repute.
According to a press note from Auroville, the baithak will be an impromptu concert, a completely improvised session, where the guest artists arrive on the day of the performance and perform together the same evening.
Mr. Vinayakram, Grammy award-winning Carnatic percussionist, has had early trysts with international music platforms when he joined fusion band Shakti to play alongside John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain in the 1970s. He has also collaborated with The Grateful Dead’s drummer, Mickey Hart, on the Planet Drum project.
Mr. Vinayakram, who accompanied the legendary M.S. Subbulakshmi at the UN headquarters in New York, has also teamed up with musicians such as Balamurali Krishna, Bhimsen Joshi, and Hariprasad Chaurasia among others.
“I remain grateful to have been able to share the stage with such incredible musicians in those early days of Indian fusion music and, I am proud to perform once again with my old friend and mentor, Vikku ji in Auroville”, said Mr. Nadaka.
Auroville artist Nadaka
The show is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Unity Pavilion, Auroville.
This concert is part of a series of Auroville Art for Land benefit concerts scheduled for every second Wednesday of the month, where guest musicians team up with Mr. Nadaka. Similar concerts will be held on February 26, March 11 and 25.
Auroville had kicked off its Art For Land campaign in January with an art show where more than 70 artists from Auroville, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, India and Auroville International offered their creations to raise funds for completing Auroville’s Master Plan land base.
