Kaderi Kibria at Surangan’s Annual Student Appreciation Day
By Sanchali Basu
HOUSTON: Surangan Music School, celebrated its annual program at the HDBS Sur Auditorium the evening of August 12. After months of rigorous rehearsals, students got to showcase their talent on a platform, which boosted their confidence and brought the Surangan family closer. Kudos to the energetic melodious, talented teacher, and founder Rupa Ghosh in accomplishing the herculean task of training the young talents, most of who are born and brought up in the US.
The program was inaugurated with the lamp lighting ceremony by community leaders, Dr. Hannan Khan, President of BASGH, Shah Haleem, President of BAH, Sujit Sengupta, Vice President of HDBS and Debleena Banerji, President of TSH.
Emcee Mila Sengupta, welcomed the audience with a brief introduction of the school.The first half of the program was titled, “Aalor Anandaloke Panchakabi” signifying the message of enlightenment through the propagation of happiness by the 5 stalwart poets of Bengal, namely Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Dwijendralal Ray, Rajanikanta Sen and Atulprasad Sen.
The script-based program was narrated by Biplab Samadder, who with his smooth, soothing, and baritone voice. Solo and group songs accompanied by Raja Banga, Niranjan Roy and Barun Choudhury on the tabla, Biplab Samadder on the violin, Vikram Banga on percussion, and Bidyut Ghosh on the mandira were interspersed with solo and group dances. The dancers ranged from considerably young artistes to more mature, skilled ones, and brought some color and life to the music program. Rupa, with the help of her ever accommodating husband Pradip Ghosh was successful in putting together this program with a large contingent of 92 participants.
What makes Rupa’s students very special is that, not only is their pronunciation of the Bengali lyrics impeccable, they also play the harmonium while singing. Group and solo dances were choreographed by Supradipta Datta, Silvia Faruque and Shown Sarkar, and performed very beautifully by Polin, Nusaiba, Tithi, Shanta, Shown, Shinjini, Ananya, Sanchali, and a number of other youngsters.
This year’s annual program was made special by the presence of Bangladesh’s pride, renowned exponent of Rabindra Sangeet and recipient of Ekushey Padak award Kaderi Kibria. He was felicitated with a plaque and “uttoriyo”. He was invited to award certificates to the students of the school and participants.
Finally Kaderi took the stage and Rupa accompanied him in some of the songs. He enthralled the audience with his with his rendition of not so popular, but rich Rabindra Sangeet numbers mixing them up with some popular ones. He spiced up the musical performance with tidbits of anecdotes related to some of his songs. He shared his experiences with his Gurus Debabrata Biswas and Chinmoy Chatterjee. He also sang some “Harano Diner Gaan” (old Bengali songs). Rupa ended the program with a vote of thanks to all participants.
Surangan family deserves high accolades for presenting yet another excellent program showcasing the gems of Bengali cultural creativity. The journey that Rupa has undertaken will undoubtedly carry the torch of Bengali cultural heritage to the newer generations growing up far from their place of origin.