A leading new shining star in the world of Indian classical music, Meeta Pundit, is coming to perform at the World of Music Arts and Dance (WOMAD) Festival in Taranaki. Organised by the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust the festival will be held at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth from March 13 to 15.
Meeta is the granddaughter and disciple of Padma Bhushan Pt Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit, the doyen of Northern Indian Classical music in the 20th century, and the daughter of legendary Pt Laxman Krishnarao Pandit. As such, she upholds a vital 200-year-old family tradition of elite singers, through six unbroken generations and has the unique distinction of being the first woman musician in the family.
Her melodious yet robust voice stretches over three octaves – a talent tested through especially difficult and challenging material, yet her intricate handling of ragas has won critical acclaim. The rendering of traditional but increasingly rare Tappa is one of the sublime offerings in her concerts. Besides the styles of Khayal and Tappa, Meeta is equally adept with genres of Tarana, Bhajan, Thumri, Sufi and cross-cultural music. Her performance embraces a cultural blend of instruments, as Meeta is accompanied by Akhtar Hasan on tabla and Bharat Bhushan Goswami on sarangi (the Indian 38-string violin).
Beyond performing extensively at prestigious festivals around the world, Meeta has emerged as a cultural icon, being subject of the 2005 film Meeta – Linking a Tradition With Today and heralded by leading magazine India Today as one of the “Youth Powers – leading India in the new Millennium”.
Meeta has performed at festivals in India and abroad including France, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, USA, Russia and Bangladesh. A PHD in music and an A-grade artist with All India Radio she has won many National awards like ‘The Golden Voice of India’, ‘SurMani’, ‘Yuva Ojaswani’ and the ‘Yuva Ratna’ along with Young Achiever of the Year for the field of Hindustani music by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), a leading corporate forum in India.
Music today has released their albums, Footsteps, Young Maestros and Tansen. Womad Taranaki is New Zealand’s pre-eminent celebration of music, arts and dance from around the globe. This is then 11th such event at TSB bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth. Womad first began at the Western Springs Park in Auckland in 1997 and another event was held at the Aotea Square in 1999.
Numerous South Asian prominent artists have performed at the events over the years. Some of them in recent years are santoor player Shiv Kumar Sharma, flute and shenai player Rajendra Prasanna, flute player
Dr Natesan Ramani, mandolin player U. Shrinivas, qawwali singers Faiz Ali Faiz, Amjad Ali Khan, Asif Ali Khan Hindustani classical vocalist Manjiri Kelkar, eminent Carnatic singer Sudha Ragunathan and popular UK artist Nitin Sawhney.
Meeta is performing at the Dell stage on Friday 13 March at 7.15pm and on the same stage on Saturday 14 March at 1pm.She will also be demonstrating her cooking skills at the Nova Energy Taste the World stage Saturday at 5pm.
WOMAD festivals are family- oriented, diverse and active musical events; sometimes
offering as many as seven stages within the festival site. Since the first festival in the UK in 1982, WOMAD has held more than 160 festivals, creating events in twenty-seven countries and islands all over the world, including: Abu Dhabi, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, UK, and the United States of America.For tickets and other information regarding the event check www.womad.co.nz