40th All India Bhaskar Rao Nritya & Sangeet Sammelan

Mar 12 2010 To Mar 14 2010 All Day, Event occurs daily

Tagore Theatre Sector - 18B, Chandigarh

40th All India Bhaskar Rao Nritya & Sangeet Sammelan. The Bhaskar Rao festival will
witness several distinguished persons on all the three days, including Shri Ram Niwas,
Home Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, Shri Pradip Mehra, Advisor to the
Administrator, Chandigarh Administration (March 13) while Punjab Governor and
Administrator UT Chandigarh Shri Shivraj V. Patil will be the Chief Guest on the
concluding evening.

The All India Bhaskar Rao Nritya & Sangeet Sammelan, which is one of the oldest music
and dance festivals of its kind in the country, is the Kendra's homage to Bhaskarbua
Bakhle offered uninterruptedly every year since 1969 to this eminent exponent of Indian
classical music.

This year too, as in the past, the Kendra is bringing some of the internationally
acclaimed artists to perform during the festival. Leading the pack is Delhi based father-
son duo Pandit Bhajan Sopori and Abhay Rustum Sopori who are scheduled to open the
first evening with their jugalbandi on Santoor.

The mystic master of Santoor, Pandit Bhajan Sopori is the bearer of a rich musical
legacy of the fabled Sufiana Gharana of Kashmir. A living legend of Santoor, Pt. Sopori
is a composer par-excellence besides a musicologist, a teacher, a poet and a writer all
rolled into one. He is a recipient of several awards and titled and is the only classical
musician to have composed music for over 5000 songs in various languages of the
country including Persian, Arabic, etc. 'Like father, like son' is an apt description of
Abhay Rustum Sopori. The young Santoor maestro and music composer, Abhay Sopori
is the youngest recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi award (Yuva Puraskar).

The second performance of the first evening will be Kathak Dance by the troupe led by
Sandeep Mahavir. The son of renowned music director and singer K. Mahavir under
whose direction top notch singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar, Anup
Jalota, Haricharan had sung, Sandeep is an exceptionally gifted dancer who have learnt
intricacies of this dance form under Madhurita Sarang. He has an excellent sense of tala
and laya and his performance stands out for its vigor and rhythm accentuated by the
clarity of footwork and proficiency in layakari.

The second day evening will witness spectacular juglbandi on Tabla and Sreekhol by
Kolkata-based Madhusudan Barman and Gopal Barman. The Barman brothers are
known as rhythm artists in music circle and have received critical acclaimed for their
sensational performance on these percussion instruments. While Madhusudan plays
Tabla, the Sreekhol is played by Gopal and both have mastered these instruments and
made sparkles in the music of both the East and the West.

Young and celebrated danseuse Meera Das and her troupe from Cuttack will present
Odissi dance recital as the second item on March 13. A globe-trotting artiste, Meera Das
has learnt under veteran Gurus Kelucharan Mohapatra and Gangadhar Pradhan and
she cast a magical on the audience with her graceful movements and beauty of the
sculptures from ancient Oriyan temples.

The concluding day (March 14) brings to the city audiences two most distinguished
stalwarts of the classical music. Pandits Rajan and Sajan Misra will open the programme
with vocal recital. World's most celebrated vocalist duo, Padma Bhushan awardees
Rajan and Sajan Misra needs no introduction in the annals of music. They belong to
eminent family of musicians of Banaras gharana.

The Bharatnatyam dance troupe led by Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan will mark the
concluding performance of the festival.