Montreal Constellation

This past November 27, I was extremely honoured to have been invited to peform as part of the Kabir Cultural Centre's Montreal Constellation concert. For this special event, they invited all the local practitioners of Hindustani classical music to collaborate in an evening performance.

Each artist presented one raga (sorry that I don't recall all the raags performed). First to perform was santoor player Jonathan Voyer, accompanied by myself on tabla. Jonathan performed Raag Yaman in Alap, Rupaktaal, and Drut Teentaal. Next, sitarist Uwe Neumann, accompanied by Subir Dev on tabla, followed by sarodiya Aditya Verma, accompanied by myself. For the finale, all artists performed together on stage in Raag Kirwani - Alap, Vilambit Teentaal and Drut Teentaal.

It was truly a magical evening, and it was an honour to perform with such talented artists. It was a real coming-together of the local Indian music scene. This was also my first time performing with another tabla player in a traditional setting. Subir is a wonderful tabla artist, and it was a pure pleasure to perform together. I sincerely hope that we will be able to have other such occasions to perform together in the future.

For those of you who know the local scene, a major absence was felt, as bansuri player Catherine Potter was unable to participate due to her ill health. She passed away 6 days later. I will devote an entire post to Catherine in my next blog posting. Needless to say, her passing created waves across the entire Canadian music landscape, touching people from coast to coast.

All photos by Arif Khan of the Kabir Cultural Centre.