Hindustani Music lovers were treated to a day devoted to performances in Hindustani Classical Vocal Music entitled Gaan Sammelan, by 3 residents of New England and 3 visiting artists from India on Saturday,October 13, 2007. This musical event was held at MacArthur School in Waltham, MA and presented by Learnquest Academy of Music in cooperation with Shrewsbury, Mass based Raganjali School of Music and Sargam Academy of Indian Music. About 75 Hindustani Music lovers attended the ten-hour vocal musical treat by upcoming as well as celebrated performers of the art form.

Co-founder of Learnquest Academy, Shri Pradeep Shukla opened the Sammelan at 1p.m with homage and remembrance of a Learnquest supporter and conference committee member, Shri Vinod Chungi who passed away on October 8, 2007. Several members of the audience knew Dr. Chungi and his love for the arts including Hindustani Classical Music, Ghazals and Marathi and Hindi Drama.

Smt. Preeti Chakravathy, a local performer and teacher of vocal music and harmonium at Learnquest’s Waltham and Andover locations was the first featured performer who began  with a rendition of afternoon raga Bhimpalaasi. She presented slow(Vilambit) and fast(Drut) compositions and ended her recital with a Ram Bhajan. Smt. Chakravarthy played the harmonium herself and was also accompanied by Shri Milind Joshi on harmonium and Shri Akshay Navaladi on tabla. Smt. Anisha Mahajan provided vocal support to the artist.

Shri Ramchandra Joshi, a software engineer and resident of Framingham, MA presented Raag Shri and a Nirguni Bhajan next. Shri Joshi is a graded artist of All India Radio and has received training in vocal music from illustrious teachers such as Smt. Krishna Mukherjee and Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe. He was ably accompanied on harmonium by Shri Milind Joshi and on tabla by Shri Harshal Tole.

Shri Milind Joshi, currently residing in Waltham, MA gave a performance and  talk on Samvadini, a unique instrument that is a modification of Harmonium. He played solo pieces in ragas Saarang and Pilu accompanied on tabla by Shri Harshal Tole.

Smt.Shobha Chaudhury, a resident of Indore, India, who has received training from Shri Vaman Rao Rajurkar and is a gold-medalist in music, presented ragas Madhuvanti and Shri followed by a dadra, a bhajan and a marathi natya-geet. Endowed with a rich and robust voice, Smt. Chaudhury’s development of Raag Madhuvanti was commendable and her semi-classical pieces were rhythmic and appealed to the audience. She was accompanied on harmonium by Shri Milind Joshi and on tabla by Shri Akshay Navaladi.

There was a 30 minute dinner intermission followed by recitals by Connecticut resident Stan Scott, Kolkatta resident Ruchira Panda and the grand finale was presented by Kaivalya Kumar Gurav, son and disciple of legendary Indian vocalist from Kiraana Gharana, Shri Sangameshwar Gurav. Evening ragas Bihag, Rageshri, Gorakh Kalyan, and semi-classical items such as Thumri, Hori and Bhajan dominated the evening’s presentation. Dr. George Ruckert accompanied Dr. Stan Scott on harmonium, Dr. Nishikant Sonwalkar accompanied Ruchira Panda on tabla and Ravindra Katoti accompanied Shri Kaivalya Kumar Gurav on harmonium while Ravindra Yavagal accompanied him on tabla.

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