CLASSICAL INDIAN MUSIC CONCERT AT BARD COLLEGE ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 2 Raghunath Seth and Steve Gorn to perform on bansuri flute with tabla player Samir Chatterjee
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY-The sounds of classical Indian music will be featured at a special concert at Bard College on Wednesday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. The concert features performances by renowned Indian musicians Raghunath Seth and Samir Chatterjee, and Steve Gorn, an internationally respected interpreter of Indian classical and new American music. The concert, presented by the Asian Studies, Music, and Religion Programs at Bard College and the Lalit Foundation, Inc., will be held in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents on Annandale Road, and is free and open to the public.
Raghunath Seth is recognized as one of India's leading performers on the bansuri, a bamboo flute with a three-octave range. He is known for his deeply meditative style, precise intonation, and flawless technique, and is a recipient of many honors, including the Sangeet Natak Academy award for his outstanding contribution. Accompanying him will be Steve Gorn on bansuri and Pandit Samir Chatterjee on tabla.
Raghunath Seth's unique approach to the bansuri bamboo flute features the lyrical contours of Indian vocal music, precise intonation, and flawless instrumental technique. The Northern Indian Patrika has written, ". . . his Kausi Kanhra (raga) was a thing of beauty, the finale of which was a veritable whirlwind of speed which drew great appreciation from the audience." He has recorded and performed extensively in India, Europe, and America, and is renowned as a composer and director of film music in India. His latest recording for India Archive Music features Samir Chatterjee on tabla. Both he and Gorn will be featured performers on April 28, at the Chhandayan/World Music Institute All Night Indian Music Concert in Manhattan.
Samir Chatterjee is one of the leading tabla players of India and appears frequently as a soloist and accompanist throughout India and abroad. He can be heard on many recordings, both as a soloist and in collaboration with many of India's greatest musicians and with noted Western musicians. He has appeared with Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, and Nikhil Banerjee. Chatterjee now lives in New York where he has become a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Western music, performing with Pauline Oliveros, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Gorn, Glen Velez, and the Da Capo Chamber Orchestra. He is a member of jazz trios, SYNC with Ned Rothenberg and Jerome Harris and SATYA with Dave Douglas and Myra Melford. He performed with Sanjay Mishra on the recording Blue Incantation, which featured Jerry Garcia as a guest artist. Chatterjee is the founder and director of CHHANDAYAN, an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Indian music and culture.
Steve Gorn has performed Indian classical music and new American music on the bansuri bamboo flute in concerts and festivals throughout the world. A student of the late bansuri master Sri Gour Goswami of Calcutta and Ustad Z. M. Dagar, he now studies with Deba Prasad Banerjee of Calcutta and Raghunath Seth of Mumbai. Gorn went to India in 1969 after becoming fascinated with the influence that Indian music was having on John Coltrane and Charles Lloyd. He has returned many, many times to India since then to study and perform. Gorn's recordings include Luminous Ragas, chosen by the Los Angeles Reader as one of the top 10 recordings of 1994; Parampara, a recording of Indian classical music with Pandit Samir Chatterjee; Asian Journal, a landmark Indian-jazz fusion recording; and Wings and Shadows on which he is accompanied by the haunting sound of thousands of birds singing at twilight in Pune, India. Gorn composes for film and television and has collaborated with Glen Velez, Jai Uttal, Layne Redmond, Badal Roy; toured Europe and Africa with Jack DeJohnette; and was the featured soloist for performances of Jerome Robbins's ballet, "Watermill," in New York and Paris. He is currently recording with Paul Simon and Tony Levin.
For further information about the concert, call 845-758-6822.
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(3.30.01)