Sitaria at the Espace Cercle Carré

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure to perform a noon-hour concert with sitarist Uwe Neumann at the Espace Cercle Carré. The ECC is an artist co-op, and they have recently established a summer noon-hour concert series called Les Midis Musique. Situated in Old Montreal, the ECC has a lovely performance space, ideal for Indian classical music. It's an intimate space with a truly excellent acoustic. Uwe and I had a great time, as usual.

Uwe played Alap and Jor in Raag Jog, and I accompanied him in compositions in vilambit and drut Teentaal. We then followed up with compositions in Raag Bhairavi in Vilambit Teentaal, and Madhya Dadra.

Kirtan at the first Montreal Yoga Festival

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Lea Longo's kirtan at the opening event of the first ever Montreal Yoga Festival (Festival de Yoga de Montréal), a really great initiative by YoCoMo (Yoga Community Montreal). We were joined by Rad Crasto on guitar, Niranjan Arminius on bass, and Yasushi Matsuki on electric violin. The kirtan was really well attended, with approximately 100 people in the concert hall of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. We were joined on stage by Dr. Madan Bali, a fixture in the Montreal yoga scene, having taught in Montreal since the 1960s. A great honour.

Normally, we do kirtans in the more intimate setting of a yoga studio, so it was a bit strange to be doing kirtan in a concert hall, but the 'audience' participated with great enthusiasm, and it worked out great. A very appropriate way to open the festival. The kirtan ended up lasting about 2 hours, nonstop! Quite the workout. :)

Painting and Tabla for the Acces Asie Festival Opener

This past May 3, I accompanied painter Kakim Goh for the opening of the Festival Acces Asie, at the Montréal Arts Interculturel. Definitely not the type of tabla accompaniment that I am used to, but certainly a fun experience!

Kakim preparing his canvas.

Kakim in action.

The finished painting.

Also, here is a link to a Radio Canada International (RCI) interview that I did in French, just before the performance, translated to Russian for their Russian-language programming.

Thanks to Caroline Tabah for the photos!

Ragleela at Festival Classica

Today, Ragleela performed at the St. Lambert United Church as part of the Festival Classica. It was great fun to be back performing with the group as a full quintet.

Ragleela at St. Lambert United Church, Festival Classica

Having a good time!

Uwe pulled out his sansa for Sansonica.

Ragleela is Uwe Neumann on sitar, Jean-Marc Hébert on guitar, Marie-Soleil Bélanger on violin, Eric Breton on percussion, and me on tabla.

Thanks to Caroline Tabah for the photos!