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.

In concert with Steve Gorn

This past July 27, I had the great pleasure of accompanying bansuri master Steve Gorn at the Espace Cercle-Carré in Old Montreal. He came up from his home in the US to spend some time with his student Alexandre Lavoie and to do some Montreal sightseeing, and so we thought it would be great to organize a small concert for him while he was here.

The Espace Cercle-Carré is a new performance space in an artists' co-op. The space is quite reverberant, and a very beautiful acoustic for Indian classical music. We performed without any amplification, in a house-concert style setup. We all really enjoyed the vibe, and hopefully I will be able to organize other Indian music concerts there in the future.

Some concert attendees posted other photos of the performance here and here.

It was a real pleasure to have Steve perform in Montreal. Hopefully he will be back again sometime soon!

Playing for Royalty and Canada Day in Ottawa

This past June 30, I was very fortunate to have been invited to perform for the Celebration of Youth Reception at Rideau Hall, as part of Prince William and Princess Kate's visit to Canada. The reception at Rideau Hall (the residence of the Governor General) was by invitation only, and security was very tight. In attendance were the Prince and Princess, the Governor General, the Prime Minister, and 120 youth being honoured for their work.

The Prince and Princess meeting the chefs that prepared the meal, followed by the PM.

Singer Kuljit Sodhi, of the group Galitcha, and I joined French-Canadian band La Ligue du Bonheur, for an Indo-Québecois musical masala. The original plan was to perform outdoors, but the rain forced the reception indoors. Unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to obtain any photos of our performance. Above is a photo that I took with my Blackberry while we were taking a break between sets.

Some photos of Kuljit and myself hanging out at Rideau Hall, while the reception was being set up indoors.

Next, on Canada Day (July 1), Kuljit and I were joined by Jean-Marc, the accordionist from La Ligue du Bonheur for some Indian folk music. Accordion instead of harmonium, why not? :) We performed twice at Major Hill Park in Ottawa, right next to the Parliament buildings. I also did a short collaborative piece with Odissi dancer Sonia St-Michel. I accompanied her on tabla and recited bols.

In the studio with Elephant Stone!

This past July, I had the pleasure of going into the studio to recording again for the "Hindi-Rock" band, Elephant Stone. I played tabla on one of the band's latest singles, The Sea of Your Mind. As always, it's great fun to collaborate with bandleader Rishi Dhir, and Breakglass Studios mastermind Jace Lasek. Just like Elephant Stone's last EP, the entire recording was done through the Neve console, direct to reel-to-reel tape. No digital equipment or computer was involved; pure analog recording!

Currently, the first single, Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin, is available for free download from http://www.elephantstonemusic.com/. I assume that The Sea of Your Mind will be released shortly, stay tuned!

Jace pondering the optimum mic placement, while Rishi documents the studio session for posterity. :)

Choirs taking a trip around the world through music!

Yes, I am very behind in keeping up with my blog posts! This concert dates back to January 29, when I was guest percussionist with the Yellow Door Choir, directed by Eleanor Stubley. The concert, titled World Rhythms, featured music from India, Japan, Africa, Ireland, Canada, and the Middle-East. They set up a video camera, focused on my hands, and projected the video onto the big screen to the right of the stage. Never have I been made so aware of my every move, lol! Aside from tabla, I also played a couple of pieces on darbouka and pandeiro. The highlight was a choir arrangement of Jai Ho from the popular Bollywood film, Slumdog Millionaire. Fun!

Jumping forward six months, to June 4, for the Harmonia Westmount Women's Choir's concert We are the World, directed by Fredericka Petit-Homme. Another varied program of music from around the world, including India, Africa, Israel, Japan, Canada, and Ireland. It was also great fun and a real pleasure to be directed by one of my former students at McGill, Elizabeth Lanzer.