A vocal concert by Antara Pal, disciple of Swapna Ray on September 10, 2016 at Thoreau School, Concord, MA

On September 10, 2016 Swaralipi Academy of Music celebrated the ‘Samabartan’ (Graduation) ceremony of Miss Antara Pal at Thoreau School, Concord, MA.  Antara started taking lessons in Rabindrasangeet from her guru Ms.  Swapna Ray at a tender age of six.  At that time, she did not speak a word of any Indian language.  But, through her music-training she sang effortlessly in fluent Bangla for almost two hours to a capacity audience who listened to her in rapt attention.  Her presentation also spoke volume about the training she received from Ms. Ray who accompanied her in harmonium.   Ms. Ray also aptly punctuated Antara’s performance with short explanation of the basis of each song in terms of raga and taala, as well as poetic background.  Antara vocalized a wide variety of Tagore songs including a Scottish song which was the source of one Rabindrasangeet that was included in her repertoire. 

Samabartan in Rabindrasangeet is a rarity in North America, and possibly Antara’s presentation under the guidance of Ms. Swapna Ray is first of its kind.  Ms. Ray took training in Rabindrasangeet under the tutelage of legendary vocalist Ms. Suchitra Mitra.  Therefore, Antara’s performance was truly an embodiment of ‘Guru-Shishya Parampara’ of Indian classical music heritage.  Another highlight of the event was a slide presentation of each song, translated in English depicting its lyrical background and musical foundation.   Antara’s journey through music, supported aptly by Ayan Basumallick (keyboard and acoustic guitar), Shivaramakrishnan (flute), Koushik Chakrabarty (table), Swapna Ray (harmonium), and Jawed Wahid (sound engineering) was concluded by a duet with Ms. Swapna Ray.   

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