A Busy Fall Season with Santoor Player Jonathan Voyer

This past fall was a really busy time, playing with santoor player Jonathan Voyer. We started the fall with a concert at McGill at the end of September, which I wrote about in a blog post previously. A short excerpt of the performance is now available on YouTube:

Shortly after that, we collaborated with dancer Julie Beaulieu for her choreography Mousson la nuit. Produced by Samskara, Mousson la nuit was presented as part of Tangente Danse's season at Usine-C. Choreographed and danced by Julie Beaulieu, Mousson la nuit depicts Raag Megh, a monsoon raga, coming to life, incarnated through the dancer. Jonathan and I provided the music. This time, however, Jonathan performed as both a santoor player and as a vocalist! The music is traditional, North Indian classical music, with alap (both sung and on santoor), a vocal bandish in Jhaptaal, followed by instrumental gats in Jhaptaal and Teentaal. The dance aspect is contemporary, but with inspiration from the Bharata Natyam tradition.

The four shows were very well attended, and we are looking forward to performing Mousson again in the future.

The week after, Jonathan and I headed to Quebec City for performances at Café Babylone and the Grand Théâtre du Québec.

The next week was the opening of the exhibition Couleurs de l'Inde at the Musée Pointe-à-Callière in Old Montreal. Couleurs de l'Inde is an exhibition of photos by French photographer Suzanne Held. Our CD, Shanta, is the official soundtrack for the exhibition, which runs until April 22.

Later on, in early December, we played at the museum for their annual fundraiser dinner.

Photo by Alain Vandal

With Francine Lelièvre, General Director of the Musée Pointe-à-Callière, and Jonathan Voyer.
Photo by Alain Vandal

What a great fall season it was! We are looking forward to our next concert on February 4, at Timpano-Percussion!

A Quick Update on Recent Activities

Things have been really busy these past several weeks with many great projects. Here is a quick rundown of what's been going on.

First, in January, I performed tabla solo for the Abhilasha Project's fundraiser concert. In February, another fundraiser concert - this time, for the Montreal Heart of the City Piano Program, and a performance of Payton MacDonald's marimba and tabla duo, Jugalbandi, with marimbist Catherine Meunier. We also recorded some music by composer Luigi Allemano for an upcoming National Film Board short film.

Performing Jugalbandi with Catherine Meunier

March included a recording and performance with Francophone singer/poet Mathieu Lippé in Quebec City, a jazz performance with pianist John Roney, and Bhumi Pranam, a Bharat Natyam performance with Ginette Dion's Sattvika Danse.

My setup for accompanying John Roney included tabla (3 dahinas),

shakers, and a variety of Sabian cymbals that I played with both hands and sticks.

(Special thanks to Ji for the photo!)

Coming next are performances with contemporary violinist Parmela Attariwala in Toronto, and pop singer Yann Perreau's album launch in Montreal.