The Carnatic Alchemy Project, a non-profit dedicated to taking Carnatic music to world audiences announces its first major concert production – ‘Carnatic Cadenzas’ on March 8, 2014 at 5pm at Keefe Tech Auditorium.  The concert was earlier rescheduled to March 8th from February 22nd due to unavoidable circumstances with the production team.

A first of its kind, the concert will be a multi-lingual musical treat, with compositions in 7 languages - Sanskrit, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Turkish and Persian.  ‘We take Carnatic raagas and improvisations into North Indian and Turkish song forms along with typical Carnatic ones.  We will present Kriti, Keerthana, Shloka, Thumri, Ghazal, Devaranama, Bhajan, Thillana  and a varnam with a unique orchestration. That is a lot of variety for someone looking for a novel Indian classical music experience’ quotes Rajesh Pai, who plays tabla on the Carnatic Cadenzas team. Proceeds from ticket sales of the concert will benefit Seva Mandara, a focus group of the New England Kannada Koota. The concert will culminate in a CD release ceremony of contemporary classical music ‘Ka’ – composed by celebrated Indian-American composer Shirish Korde and Deepti Navaratna. The CD will be released by Dr. Manju Seth, a noted public figure and hostess of ‘Chai with Manju’ series  who will address the audience along with eminent people from the New England community. Proceeds from the CD sales of Ka will be donated to Sankara Cancer Foundation’s cancer screening drives, led by Rajesh Vaidheeswaran.

‘We have a stellar line up of artists for the concert, artists from the Indian diaspora and beyond – Mahalingam Santhanakrishnan on mridangam, KVS Vinay on Carnatic violin, Rajesh Pai on tabla, Dilip Acharya on the harmonium. As special guest, we have well-known poetess Sunayana Kachroo, with whom I will present some interesting mix of word, poetry and music.’ quipped Deepti Navaratna, Carnatic vocalist and artistic director of the Carnatic Alchemy Project. The concert promises to present some eclectic fare of inter-cultural explorations –a thumri with Carnatic text, a Ghalib ghazal tuned to Carnatic raagas, poetry and recitation that’s inspired by Carnatic text, a medley of Turkish and Persian songs interwoven with Carnatic improvisations. Guest artists Abby Swidler and Jacob Means alongwith Deepti Navaratna will present a contemporary interpretation of Muttuswamy Dikshitar’s nottuswara sahitya ‘Vande Meenakshi’ at the concert.

With the goal of introducing audiences to Carnatic music, there will be traditional Carnatic compositions as well.  Their flyer summarizes it as ‘world music with a Carnatic twist’.  The Carnatic Alchemy Project differentiates itself by focusing on more broader community engagement – public libraries, universities, and venues of mainstream American impact. Carnatic Cadenzas if their first effort to take Carnatic inspired music to a pan-Indian and South Asian audience. It has received fiscal sponsorship from Fractured Atlas recently, all contributions in support of CAP are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Listen to concert teasers here:

1.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LRo_nNzS2U

2.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTtVvwWlRq0

3.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5chIgq-HCk

4.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxBS80mk4YM

Tickets available on Lokvani @ :

http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/cal.php?stage=1&event_id=10394

For more details on the concert, please visit: www.deeptinavaratna.com.

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