Three Concerts at OpenMind Festival

This past week, I had the pleasure of accompanying three different artists over the course of three days at the OpenMind Festival in La Patrie, Quebec. OpenMind Festival is a music festival, bringing people together in a celebration of diversity and sound ecological practices. The festival takes place every two years, and in a different location that is always very isolated (no cell phone coverage this year!) and very beautiful. You may remember my performance with Uwe Neumann from the last OpenMind Festival, in 2011.

My first performance at this year's festival was an early evening concert with sitarist Uwe Neumann. I accompanied him in raag Kirwani, in Sitarkhani, followed by another raag in Rupak, the name of which has slipped my mind, and lastly, a Bhairavi in Teentaal. We concluded with Uwe's customary finale - an improvised piece on sansa.

A view of the stage and surrounding stunning views!

Next was a noon concert, accompanying santoor player Jonathan Voyer. Our outdoor performance was quickly rained out (Jonathan didn't even get to finish his alap), even though Jonathan had specifically decided NOT to play raag Megh (a monsoon raga, which would have been appropriate, considering the OpenMind theme of the day was water), and instead opted for Bhimpalasi. Well, raag Megh or not, the rain came down hard! The tech crew quickly scrambled to move us and all the equipment into ... how to explain ... an enormous, inflated white ball, with carpets and pillows laid out on the inside. It was a really nice, intimate setting for the music, but also incredibly hot! Jonathan wrapped up his alap, and we moved on to compositions in Rupak and Teentaal. It must have been 40 degrees (C) in there, no exaggeration. Nevertheless, we brought full energy (and lots of sweat!) to the performance, and the audience was extremely receptive.

Photo from soundcheck. No more photos from the outdoor stage, as it soon started to rain!

Inside the big inflated white ball. The stage was unfortunately placed behind an altar, as you can see here.

The ball!

Last, but not least, was a sitar performance with Toronto-based musician, Prosad. This was actually our first time meeting and playing together. Prosad has studied with musicians in both the Vilayat Khan style and Ali Akbar Khan style of playing, and so his approach was quite different from the Montreal-based musicians that I usually play with. It was great fun to follow and see where he might lead me. Lots of fun rhythmic interplay and intricate tihais!

Again, in the ball, and hidden behind the altar!

Overall, a great three days of tabla accompaniment! Thanks to Caroline Tabah for most of the photos, aside from the few cellphone shots. :)

OpenMind Festival with sitarist Uwe Neumann

Catching up on some old posts - This past August 11, I had the great pleasure to accompany sitarist Uwe Neumann at the Open Mind Festival in Curran, Ontario. This Eco-Festival includes live music, kirtan, DJs, and various environmental and healing sessions and workshops. Upon arrival, our travel distance was calculated and our parking cost was based on our CO2 emissions! This is the first time that I have seen this approach; I think the festival organizers pass on the money to an organisation that will plant trees to counteract everyone's emission pollution.

Indian classical music workshop with Uwe Neumann

In the afternoon, we gave a 90-minute workshop/performance on Indian classical music. Uwe started with the ektara, explaining the idea of drone and how the overtones contain all the pitches of the scale. We then played a short Bengali folk piece with the ektara. Next, we got into more of the nitty gritty, demonstrating the sitar and tabla, and talking about raag and taal. We played a short classical piece, and afterwards had an interesting exchange with the audience.

Uwe and his huge ektara

Reciting tabla bols during the workshop

Later that evening, we performed a full sitar and tabla concert. It's great to have the time to do a full alap-jor-jhala, with gats in vilambit, madhya, and drut. Uwe was really in the mood and we had some great exchanges. As is the tradition with Uwe, we ended with a short piece on sansa and tabla.

Evening concert at Open Mind

Photos by Caroline Tabah