2nd Global Conference on World Religions

This past September 7, Jonathan Voyer and I had the honour to perform for the Second Global Conference on World Religions, held at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal. The list of guest speakers was quite impressive. The keynote speaker was his Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and he was joined by world-famous author Deepak Chopra, Professors Tariq Ramadan, Robert Thurman, Steven T. Katz and Gregory Baum.

Unfortunately, we didn't meet any of these distinguished people, but we were very happy to share our music with the very receptive attendees!

Summer Festivals with Ragleela

This past August 10, I performed with Ragleela at the Festival des Traditions du Monde de Sherbrooke. I had played this festival a few years earlier with Galitcha, and so was really looking forward to being back. This was our first performance trying out a new instrument with the group -cello. Cellist Philippe Mius d'Entremont joined the usual group of Uwe Neumann on sitar, Jean-Marc Hébert on guitar, Eric Breton on percussion, and myself on tabla.

Soundchecking with Ragleela at the Festival des Traditions du Monde de Sherbrooke

In concert at the Festival des Traditions du Monde Sherbrooke

Here comes the rain!

But, after we played our first tune, BOOM, the rain came down HARD. We quickly packed up our instruments, but were told to stay on standby in case the weather cleared up. 20 minutes later, it did, and so we were able to resume our set for another 30 minutes or so. Then right after finishing, again, the rain came pouring down and this time there was no end in sight. We scrambled to pack our instruments and put them away in the car. We were all completely soaked, but luckily no instruments were damaged.

On August 13, we headed out to the Festival Interculturel de Rawdon. Unlike the weather in Sherbrooke earlier that week, the weather was really amazing. Nothing but sun and blue skies. The festival is set at the municipal beach, right next to a peaceful lake.

Uwe playing his sansa.

After the concert, we took a few group photos in the Rawdon countryside. Here are a couple of my favourites:

 

First Annual Summer Tabla Workshop in Montreal

Some of you may remember that I hosted Gurujee, Pandit Sharda Sahai for tabla workshops in Montreal back in 2006 and 2008. Unfortunately, he isn't travelling as often as he used to, and so has stopped coming to North America for his annual workshops. This year, I decided to continue the tradition in my own small way, and organised a one-week tabla workshop at McGill University during the first week of July. Students were divided into two groups - beginner and intermediate. Each class met four times, in addition to daily group practice sessions, and two video-viewing sessions where we watched performances of instrumental music, tabla solos, and kathak dance.

We ended the workshop with a Guru Puja. Here are a few photos:

Thanks to all the students for their enthusiastic participation! Keep practicing! :)

I'm currently in the planning stages for next year's summer workshop in Montreal. Also, stay tuned for information about Gurujee's tabla workshop in London in summer 2012! It will be really special. As soon as I have any details, I will post them here.