KHMC hosted the Summer Concert on June 20, 2015 at the residence of Smt. Uma and Sri Ravi Shankar, in Westford, MA.  As the colors of summer settled down with their own flare the perfect timing of KHMC concert added an extra brightness to the whole musical mood of summer for the New England music lovers. Thanks to the organization like KHMC to bring in the series of such concerts for every season. The Hindustani senior segment of the Summer concert was a marked by beautiful presentation given by renowned artist from New England, Smt. Swati Panda.  Swatiji began with a beautiful rendition of bada khayal in Raag Patdeep, that took the audience to a world of positivity and happiness as she presented “Shubh din Aaj”,  in Dheema Jhaptal, played in  slow tempo of 14 beats rhythmic cycle. This was followed by dhrut teen taal “Kal nahi aye” again raag Patdeep, a powerfully captivative raag.  Next, audience witnessed a very unique style of play of words in the Dadra “Jadoo Bhareli, Kaun Albeli, Naina rasile“ with the emotional interweave in dadara, a 6 beat rhythmic cycle  taal . One could draw a painting of a beautiful damsel just by listening to the description as rarely one gets to listen to such originality in compositions.   Lastly the soothing Bhajan composition in Deepchandi “Ik hoor charachaar Chhayo“ gave a meditative effect to the audience who but only could immersed themselves deeper in the beautiful profoundness  of this bhajan and get connected to the divine through it. Certainly It was an enthralling performance by Swati Panda that added a great touch of creativity and warmth of  perfect  raagas palette.

The Junior Hindustani segment started with Chris Pereji’s students. Keshav Agnihotri of Sharon MA performed a tabla solo, consisting of two Kayedas, two Relas and a few fixed compositions in Teen Taal, a rhythmic cycle of sixteen beats. First Kayeda highlighting the syllables ‘GheNa TeTe DhaGeNa’ Second Kayeda highlighting the syllables ‘Dha-TrKd DheTeTe’ First Rela highlighting the syllables ‘Dha-TeReKiTe TaKaTeReKeTe’ Second Rela highlighting the syllables ‘GhiDTeTe GhiDNaGa’. Next was a Tabla Group Recital presented by Nilay Pangrekar, Yash Sakhalkar, Sagar Koul, and Sahil Koul of Mansfield MA, and Ayush Gupta, Niki Pareek, and Amit Bhatia of Barrington RI. The youngsters impressed the audience with ‘Padanth’ (Oral Recitation), Vistar in three Kayedas in Vilambit Teen Taal, Thekas and Tihayis in Ada Choutaal, Deepchandi Taal, Rupak Taal, Choutaal, Ek Taal, Dadra Taal, and Kehrwa Taal. The students demonstrated the concepts of Dohra, Adha Dohra, Vishram, Adha Vishram, and Palta. They played a generous number of Tihayis in each Taal, using syllables from various Kayedas highlighting phrases such as ‘DhaDha TeTe’, ‘Dha-Ti- DhaGeNa’,  â€˜Dha-TeReKeTe’, ‘GheNa GheGe’, ‘KaTa GheGe’ ‘Kat TeTe, GheGeTeTe’ ...And many more…The concluding piece was an impressive loop toggling between Kehrwa Theka by the Barrington Boyz, and Kehrwa Prakar (Kism) by the Mansfield.

The Junior section of the Carnatic concert was sung by Anupama Balasubramanyan, a student of Smt. Aparna Balaji of Abhyaas school of music. She was accompanied by Ajay Karthik on violin, a student of Smt. Tara Anand of Anubhava school of music and Hari Shanmugam on the Mridhangam, a student of Sri. Gowrishankar, all of whom are well known teachers of Carnatic music in the Greater Boston area. The rendition started with a varnam in Sahana, set to Adhi Thalam, giving a smooth start to the concert. This was followed by “Maha Ganapathim” in Nattai set to Adhi Thalam as well, bringing a bright start to the concert. The third piece was a beautiful commanding song on Lord Shiva, in ragam Abhogi, “Sabhapathikku Veru Dheivam” in Rupakam, followed by the main piece in Kalyani, “Unnaiallal Vere Gathi”. On the lighter side was the next song, in Kapi, “Charanamule Nammithi” followed by a bang with the thillana sung not only by Anupama, but a few other students of Abhyaas, namely Neelakshi Maniraj, Nithya Aryasomayajula, Sanjana Sankar and Sreshtaa Rajesh, in Ragam Poorvi, composed Sri. T. Vaidhyanadha Bagavathar.  The voice of the young artist during the raga alapanaa, sahithyam and kalpanaswaram, accompanied by both the smooth fingers of the violinist and rhythmic playing of the mridangist brought glory to the whole hour. Thanks to the renowned teachers of theirs, this whole section of the concert was a grand success.

For Senior Carnatic summer KHMC concert review please visit http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=11132.