Fourth Annual Summer Tabla Workshop

This year's intensive summer tabla workshop took place from June 23 through to June 29 at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. There were students who came from as far away as Ottawa, New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts. A big thank you to this year's wonderful participants, who made it such an enjoyable week!

As always, there were group classes, daily group practice sessions, listening/video sessions, and we ended with a touching Guru Puja. A few of the students got together to make malas (flower garlands), and all brought fruits and sweets for the puja. We talked about the history of the Benares gharana as I introduced the participants to the legendary artists that make up Guruji's family tree. It was really nice having everyone pay homage to Guruji and his family, and I think that everyone really enjoyed the cultural experience. It's so important to honour our teachers, and the rich history of the gharana.

The week just flew by; I can't believe it's over already. Already thinking about next year, which will be the fifth edition!

Thanks to Caroline for the photos! For more photos, please visit the Facebook album.

Bansuri Concert with Chloé Bennett

This past Saturday, August 3, I accompanied bansuri player Chloé Bennett for her Indian music début in her hometown of Montreal. She has been living in India for the past five years, studying with legendary bansuri maestro, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. She is currently in town for a few weeks, visiting her family, and so we took this opportunity to set up a couple of concerts for her.

This first concert took place at the Sivananda Yoga Centre in downtown Montreal. The concert was really well attended, as many of Chloé's friends and family have never heard her play Indian music before. It was a very special occasion and Chloé did really well, engaging the audience with both her words and her music. She opened with raag Malkauns, with an alap-jor, followed by compositions in Jhaptaal and Teentaal. I particularly enjoyed the Jhaptaal composition; it's one of those that really sticks in your head, even hours after the performance. The Teentaal was a bit odd, as the melody began on khali, and so had a feeling of being flipped around backwards (this is not unusual). She then followed with raag Bageshri in Rupak, a thumri in Pilu, and then a Bengali folk song to conclude.

We were accompanied by flutist and bansuri player Marie Saintonge, which was a very welcome surprise for me.

Chloé on bansuri, with Marie on tanpura.

If you missed this concert, there is still another chance to hear Chloé before she heads back to India. We will be playing at H-OM Yoga in Vaudreuil-Dorion (3187 Harwood), on Friday, August 23 at 8pm.

I am really looking forward to it, and hope to see many of you there! For those of you in Montreal, it will be worth the trip! Here is a link to the Facebook event page, for those of you on Facebook.

As usual, thank you to Caroline Tabah for the photos!

Saturday Matinee with Ragleela

Yesterday, Ragleela performed an afternoon concert at the Salle de Diffusion Parc-Extension in Montreal. We didn't know what to expect from a concert at 4pm, but the hall was completely full to capacity (overflowing, in fact)! I suppose it helps that the concert was free. :)

As some of you may have seen in previous posts, the Ragleela ensemble is somewhat variable in instrumentation. For this concert, the group was made up of Uwe on sitar (and sansa), Jean-Marc on guitar (his custom 7-string, and gourd guitar), Cédric on contrabass, Guillaume on clarinet (and bass-clarinet), and myself on tabla (with my new tabla-percussion kit that includes two Tablatones and a couple of cymbals).

Aside from the opening tune, View of the Green Valley, all the pieces we played were from Ragleela's upcoming CD. This was also the concert premiere of Open Horizons and Sansala, both of which were composed mainly by Jean-Marc, making them oddities in our repertoire (most of Ragleela's music is principally composed by sitarist Uwe). Open Horizons is in drut Teentaal, and features some lovely melodies, and virtuosic solos exchanges between the sitar and the guitar. Sansala features some haunting melodies on bass clarinet, with the tabla and sansa providing a relentless groove in three. Unfortunately, I can't post any samples until the CD is released!

The next Ragleela concerts are set for July 21 in Sainte-Therese, and August 18 in Vercheres. The new album should be out this fall!

Please visit my Facebook page for even more photos!

Thank you to Caroline for capturing these musical moments.

Two Gurus in Two Weeks

The Indian classical music scene in Montreal seems to be growing of late. Not that we necessarily have more locals professionally playing Indian music, but that more and more artists are passing through Montreal to perform. This fall, it seems that there is a concert every week or two! The first couple of weeks of October were quite intense, as in the first week, my friend Jonathan Voyer hosted his santoor Guru, Pandit Satish Vyas, and the week after, Uwe Neumann's Guru, Sri Partha Bose came to visit.

In both cases, I was fortunate to be their accompanist for both their private teaching, and in concert!

On October 4, I organized a workshop for Pt. Satish Vyas (himself a senior disciple of the legendary Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma) at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. It was an introductory workshop on santoor and the North Indian classical music traditions.

The following day, I accompanied both Satishji and Jonathan for a concert at Tanna Schulich Hall, appropriately named Parampara, which was presented under the banner of Jonathan's organisation, Samskara. Tanna Hall has a perfect acoustic for Indian classical music, and while we did amplify a bit, the audio staff and equipment are of such quality, that we could not feel that we were being amplified. Crystal-clear sound!

Accompanying Jonathan Voyer.

Parampara - Guru and Shishya!

Accompanying Pandit Satish Vyas.

Dan Blanchard (also a disciple of Pt. Satish Vyas, who kindly MCed for us in English), Satishji, and Jonathan.

The next week, I had the great fortune to accompany sitarist Partha Bose in concerts at H-OM Yoga and Equilibrium Yoga on October 12 and 13 respectively. It was quite amazing to perform in such intimate settings with an artist of this calibre, who could just have easily filled a large concert hall. I considered myself privileged to have the best seat in the house, right next to Parthaji, where I could hear all the wonderful nuances of his beautiful alaps.

Accompanying Sri Partha Bose at Equilibrium Yoga.

Aha!

It was a great pleasure, and a great learning experience. I'm very much looking forward to both of their next visits to Montreal!

Thank you to Caroline Tabah for the photos!

Festival du Monde Arabe de Montréal

This past October 27, santoor player Jonathan Voyer and I performed a free concert for the Festival du Monde Arabe, at the Espace Georges-Emile-Lapalme of Place des Arts. The festival titled our concert Treasures of Indian Music, which was quite the compliment! The concert was very well attended, but because it was in an open, public space, it was really noisy. It was actually quite challenging to play in such a situation, but we did enjoy ourselves and the audience also seemed to enjoy very much!

PARAMPARA with Pandit Satish Vyas, October 5

This coming October 5, I will have the pleasure of accompanying my friend Jonathan Voyer's Guruji, Pandit Satish Vyas, in concert at Tanna Schulich Hall. This concert promises to be a truly special occasion, with both Satishji and Jonathan performing. A santoor festival! :)

Truly an event not to be missed for Indian music lovers in Montreal. You can keep up to date with the concert at its Facebook event page.

Friday, October 5, 2012 at 7:30pm
Tanna Schulich Recital Hall
Schulich School of Music of McGill University
555 Sherbrooke West, Montreal

Admission: 35$, 20$, 16$ (students)
Reservations: 514-398-4547

Here is a small clip to whet your appetite!

More Photos from my Second Annual Summer Tabla Workshop

So many great moments to share from this summer's tabla workshop! Here are some photos of the workshop in progress:

Beginner Class

Intermediate Class

Group practice session.

... and here are some more photos of the Guru puja:

Linda doing puja.

Jean-Marc doing puja.

Aaron doing puja.

Mathieu doing puja.

Marc doing puja.

Final group practice session!

Looking forward to next year!

Thanks to Caroline Tabah for the photos!

The First Annual Montreal Yoga Music Festival

This past July 14, I had the pleasure of accompanying kirtan artist Lea Longo for the First Annual Montreal Yoga Music Festival, held at the Concordia Loyola campus. This festival was the first of its kind for Montreal, focused entirely on kirtan. The weekend was filled with nonstop kirtan from morning to evening, in addition to various workshops.

I have accompanied Lea a few times over the past couple of years, however for this special occasion, Lea expanded the group with a number of guest artists. In addition to guitarist Rad Crasto and myself on tabla, we were joined by Mandala Kirtan (based in Sherbrooke, QC) musicians Geneviève Grenier on harmonium and vocals and Marie-Josée Veilleux on guitar, tanpura, and vocals. We were also joined by Elsieanne Caplette, who is a fabulous singer with a really unique voice, which you can hear on her two albums with her band Elsiane. I have been a fan of Elsiane since the band's first album, so her participation was a welcome surprise for me.

The Chapel at Concordia Loyola

Rad and Shawn

Elsieanne and Lea

Elsieanne, Lea, and Geneviève

Shawn, Elsieanne and Lea

Lea Longo

The whole gang - Rad, Shawn, Elsieanne, Lea, Geneviève, and Marie-Josée

Lea's kirtan lasted around 90 minutes, which was quite a serious workout in the overwhelming summer heat of the day. Who knew that kirtan could be hot yoga as well? :) I really enjoyed accompanying this particular incarnation of the group, and I hope that Lea will be able to coordinate some other kirtans with this ensemble.

Thanks to Caroline Tabah for the photos!