Kathak in Marlboro, Vermont

From March 5 through 7, I was in residence at Marlboro College (Marlboro, Vermont), along with cellist Jake Charkey and kathak dancer Sudeshna Maulik. We were invited to teach and perform for the faculties of music and dance by Prof. Stan Charkey.

On March 5, Jake and I gave an Indian music workshop for Prof. Charkey's world music class. The class had previously learned a bit about Carnatic music, so we started by talking about some of the similarities and differences between Carnatic (South Indian) and Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. We then got into a discussion of the tabla and taal, and the cello and raag. Jake demonstrated a few different ragas, and I had the class clapping teentaal and rupaktaal. I performed a short solo in rupak, and demonstrated a few tihais.

Later that day, Jake and I accompanied Sudeshna for her dance workshop. There was quite a large turnout, mostly made up of ballet and contemporary dancers. Sudeshna pushed the students hard and they learned quite a lot in the 90 minutes we had together!

On March 6, Jake and I gave some private lessons to interested students. One of the students had previously been to Benares and studied tabla for a few weeks there.

On March 7, we performed in concert for a very enthusiastic audience. First, Jake performed cello solo, opening with a piece in Raag Durga. Alap and gat in jhaptaal (10 beats). I then performed tabla solo in teentaal, vilambit and madhya. After a short pause, we continued with the kathak dance segment, accompanying Sudeshna through vilambit, madhya, and drut teentaal. As always, Sudeshna danced with great energy, precision, and flair and the audience responded with much applause throughout the performance.

Many thanks to the Charkey family for hosting us during our residency. We stayed at their place in Brattleboro. Brattleboro is a friendly, picturesque town, with a large artist community. I hope to return again in the near future!