San Diego Indian Music and Dance Festival

[bilahari]

The San Diego Indian Music and Dance Festival is occurring this week from Thursday to Sunday. The schedule of events is here: http://www.indianfinearts.org/

If you're anywhere in the vicinity, please do attend the concerts and support us. I'm especially thrilled that we have a nadhaswaram concert this year (Injikudi and wife). Trichur Ramachandran's concert is another that I'm looking forward to, as I am to Gayathri Venkataraghavan's, Pantula Rama's, and Trichur Brothers'. K.N. Sashikiran's ensemble should be interesting and I'm curious to see why exactly Manasi Prasad needs to sing with three melodic accompanying instruments.

Of course, I urge all rasikas to attend the student performances as well. Dr. C.M. Venkatachalam's students delivered one of the most memorable performances last year with their impeccably synchronised renditions of OVK krithis (their rendition of the balahamsa krithi nIlalOhita is still etched in my memory), and I look forward to their presentation of various ragamaliga compositions this year (especially my personal favourite - ArabhimAnam).

[sridhar_ranga]

Here's wishing you a great listening experience Bilahari. Do keep those super reviews coming.

[bilahari]

Thank you, Sridhar! And, of course, I'm polishing my kniv...er, getting ready to put out a slew of reviews this week.

[rshankar]

Bilahari,

Very interesting 'event' list! I did not know that K. N. Shashikiran was a 'konnakOL' expert. That was certainly unexpected!

Do you have insider information that ArabimAnam will be performed, or is it a guess?

BTW, if you liked Smt. Bharati Shivaji's mOhiniATTam last year, you should attend the oDissi performance - while sOpAnam music (that accompanies mOhiniATTam) is very similar to CM, the music of ODissi is sufficiently different from both HM and CM (there is even a movement lead by Sri Raghunath Panigrahi, husband of the late Smt. Samjukta Panigrahi, to have the SNA declare it as a third classical music form of India). In addition, the movements of oDissi are very much lAsya oriented, like mOhiniATTam, but the pace varies much more than it does in mOhiniATTam. The tribhangi (the body held with three angles) and the cauka (the stance like araimaNdi) are VERY unique to oDissi and impart untold grace and elegance - I do not know if you have seen Sri Ramli Ibrahim's clips on youtube - I think he is one of the most appealing male dancers - transcending all genres of classical dance.

[ninjathegreat]

I heard about this festival in LA over the last weekend.

Was any forum member at that "seniors day" thing in Irvine (somewhere near LA!)? The music teacher there must be doing a massively great job, the amount of talent showcased there on saturday was amazing...

[arasi]

Ninja,
Good to hear from you!

Bilahari,
Waiting for all your reviews--we have our (dinner) knives and forks out too, waiting for your review fare

[bilahari]

Ravi, I do have insider information about ArabimAnam! And yes, I intend to attend the Odissi performance. If it's half as good as the mOhiniATTam, I will be satisfied!

Arasi, ha!

[semmu86]

Is harimau a resident of san-diego ?

[bilahari]

No.

[arasi]

Bilahari,
That's amusing. How can you say for sure when one does not know where the mysterious Harimau lives ? Unless you 'do' know him and also know that he does not live there? Semmu has asked that question because Harimau once wrote a review from your town, if I'm not mistaken.

[bilahari]

No. He reviewed my review of a concert held in San Diego.