“The Joys of Winter Ragas” Concert at Rice Casts a Musical Spell on Houston Audience
From left: Jake Levens, Varsha Vakil, Pandit Shantilal Shah, Shri Indrajit Banerjee and Ian Wells.
By Thomas Chen
HOUSTON: On Sunday, January 19, the Houston community converged at the Rice Memorial Center’s Grand Hall on the Rice University campus to enjoy Ritu Tarang -The Joys of Winter Ragas, an Indian classical music concert presented by KTRU – Rice Radio and sponsored by the Hindus of Greater Houston, Kohinoor Diamonds, Bollywood Shake, SEWA Houston, Houston Museum of Culture, Houston Arts Alliance, the City of Houston, and Indo-American News. This “free” concert was an extension of KTRU’s Navrang Show, which is celebrating its 22nd year of playing a wide variety of music, from Bollywood hits old and new, to Indian classical, Indipop, folk and Asian Underground, hosted by the artistic and dedicated Varsha Vakil.
The concert featured two of the most accomplished musicians working in Indian classical genre today – Shri Indrajit Banerjee on the sitar and Pandit Shantilal Shah on the tabla. The accolades received between the two are too many to recount; for starters, Shri Indrajit Banerjee belongs to the famous Maihar gharana of which the late sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar was a member. Not to be outdone, gold medalist Pandit Shantilal Shah has shared the stage with some of the greatest names in Indian classical music, proving to be one of the most successful tabla maestros of the time. The two artists combined their outstanding talents on a mild winter afternoon.
KTRU’s “The Joys of Winter Ragas” concert draws huge crowd at Grand Hall, Rice University.
The concert began with solo (raga Hemant) by Shri Indrajit Banerjee, as he began to play the sitar with passionate energy, his very body moving with the otherworldly twangs of his sitar. Within minutes, the entire audience was transfixed, with many heads bobbing back and forth to the unique melodies and textures of Shri Indrajit Banerjee.
Pandit Shantilal Shah joined in soon after, adding complex percussive rhythms to mix, the two instruments playing off of each other. The duo played a magnificent centerpiece raga Kirwani – one that highlighted both the subtleties and extremities of North and South Indian classical music, from the delicate crescendos, decrescendos, and variations in tempo from the slow and hypnotic, to the impressively quick, while harmonic overtones filled the hall. After concluding their set with raga Bhairavi that seemed inspired by the day’s waning sunlight, the musicians were greeted with uproarious applause, springing from the audience that just moments before had been held in a trance-like state. Rice University sophomore Austin Wu said after the show, “I was blown away; never had I expected the classical genre to inspire such emotion and expression within me.” A bravura performance!
KTRU’s specialty show Navrang offers a platform for talented artists not only from India but also from the Houston area.
For further information on KTRU’s Navrang Show visit ktru.org. Contact the Navrang Show host via email to ktru@ktru.org and remember to tune in to the show on Saturday mornings from 10am to 12pm on 90.1 HD2, ktru.org or on iheartradio.
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