Classical music concert gets rave reviews

The annual concert of Sargam School of Music held on December 10 and 11 received an astounding response from the audience. More than 80 students from the school performed over the two-day concert that also saw a workshop from a renowned musician from India Pt Salil Bhatt.

The show commenced with the prayer for the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, based on raag Bhimplasi, presented by 20 students. It was followed by another group of singers presenting Swar Malika in raag Yaman—a composition where the singers in only sing the musical notes.

The event proceeded with a folk and classical song by the young students of the school. The sitar recital by Tiara Kelly and Sargam Madhur was one of the highlights of the evening. They were accompanied on the stage by eight other sitar players.

The first half of the programme was concluded by two group tabla recitals by 14 students in each group.

Pt Salil started his recital in raag Gawati in a traditional Indian classical music style with Alap, Jod, and Jhala. The very unique concept of his performance was that 4 tabla players accompanied him on the Tabla. The first session of the raag was accompanied by Basant Madhur and Prashant Kumar and second session by Akhil Madhur and Shamal Lal.

The finale saw a performance by all tabla players, and the audience, mesmerised by their unique presentation, gave a standing ovation to Pt. Salil and the tabla players.

Pt. Salil delivered two folk melodies based on raag Kirwani and Mishar Pahadi and he was joined by two percussionists, Deepak Madhur on tabla & Ravi Nayaypati on dholak.

In the workshop conducted, Pt Salil, explained the different aspects of Indian music such as its origin, history, different type of string instruments in the world, and his own creation Satvik Veena.

He was later felicitated by a memento from Prof. Shuk Dev Madhur, the senior most teacher of Sargam School.

The second day of the concert was dedicated to the students, who performed in choirs. The event also saw group sitar and violin recitals, group tabla recitals, solo classical recitals, ghazals, and devotional songs.

Children as young as four and seven sang hymns and played harmonium and tabla.

“I see so proud to see my son playing the tabla and singing,” a parent of the performer said.

Pt Salil Bhatt, Basant Madhur, and a few musicians also gave a performance at the East meets West musical event held on Monday, December 12 at Nivara Lounge in Hamilton.