As this article hits the wire, Boston gears up to celebrate the 6^th Annual Indian Classical Music Festival organized by LearnQuest Academy of Music. It is a five-day mega event from March 30-April 3, 2011 at Harvard University, Boston University and Regis College. The festival is unique in that it presents both Hindustani and Carnatic styles of Indian classical music.

The festival caters to all segments of audience. The music lovers of Indian music, who have reveled in such music festivals in India, relive their experience in North America. The connoisseurs take this opportunity to quench their thirst listening to masters of the art along with the promising and the rising stars. It is an excellent opportunity for the Western audience and the new-comers to familiarize themselves with Indian classical music. The wide variety of choices, starting from diverse instruments, vocal recitals, jugal-bandi’s, ensembles, lecture demonstrations, offer ample opportunity for everyone to find sessions suiting one’s taste and liking.  The moods vary from session to session: it is serene, there is excitement, there is awe, it is inspirational – finally, music lets you forget the mundane and recharge your batteries for another whole year.

Like every year, this year’s festival has its share of special attractions. This year marks the end of an era with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi passing away. Very few Indian musicians of our times have touched so many hearts and souls as done by Pandit-ji in his lifetime. LearnQuest pays tribute to this great master on April 2nd by showing two films on Pandit-ji. These will be introduced by Shri Warren Sanders. One of these is a rare video recording of Bhimsen-ji’s performance at Sawai Gandharva Music Festival in Pune in 1975, at the peak of his form.

This year also marks the 150^th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore created his own genre of music called, Rabindrasangeet. It comprises of nearly 2500 songs whose lyrics and melody were composed by him. Rabindranath had a life-long association with Dhrupad and Khyal music. His music drew inspiration from Indian classical music which he enriched with his own creativity, like no one else before or after him. On April 2nd, LearnQuest will present a unique session to offer glimpses of this confluence of Rabindrasangeet with Indian classical music. Pandit Sandip Ghosh (vocal), Anirban Dasgupta (sarod) and Rabindrasangeet vocalists, Sujata Bhattacharya and Sumit Nag, will perform in this session. This may remind one of similar Rabindrasangeet jugal-bandi by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on sarod and Late Smt. Suchitra Mitra (who incidentally passed away during early part of this year).

On April 3rd, Dr. Kanniks Kannikeswaran will present a special session on connection between Dhrupad and Carnatic Music. Kanniks Kannikeswaran is a visionary musician, composer, music educator and writer. He has the rare ability to create captivating music easily accessible to a broad audience base, blending complex features of diverse World Music forms. His magnum opus, "Shanti, A Journey of Peace", a musical theater production and a choral symphony, made history by bringing together a community choir of over 150 singers of both Indian and Western origins in the Cincinnati community.

During these five days, over 50 performing artists from India and North America will come together and perform under the same roof!

More information is available at:

http://www.learnquest.org/conference2011

Like all good things in life, this year’s festival will come to an end on April 3^rd; however its cherished memories will reverberate in our minds for a long, long time to come. And we will all look forward to 2012 for LearnQuest to re-create this magic.

(For this year's music conference, LearnQuest gratefully acknowledges the support of its corporate sponsors - Infosys Technologies and Sunshine Infrawell Pvt. Ltd. Sunshine is a real estate company based near Delhi, which has introduced in India an innovative and unique concept in housing - Re-configurable Apartments. Please visit www.sunshinehelios.com for more information. Sunshine offers special investment opportunities for NRI’s.)

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