Shaam-e-Mehfil from IMPA – A New Organization Promoting Indian Music and Performing Arts
By Sanchali Basu
A magical evening of IMPA (Indian Music and Performing Arts) Inc’s launching event Shaam-e-mehfil took place on Aug 4th 2024 at Stafford Civic Center, 1415 Constitution Ave, Stafford, TX 77477. Indian Music & Performing Arts IMPA Inc. is a non- profit 501 c (3) founded by President Keka Kar with like-minded individuals to promote Indian cultural arts of music & dance. Board members include Kiran Ketkar, Bobby Singh, Ritu Chinchlani, Marlaine Frelier, and Addy Aliaj.
Attendees were welcomed with snacks and soft drinks, catered by Indian Summer on entry and the music and dance program followed.
The evening was kicked off by emcees Leena Shaw and Shehzad Shah, radio personalities who have their own radio program. They complimented each other very well with their exchange of shairis, and were able to keep the audience engaged the entire evening.
It was an evening of toasting to a fantastic organization, with a thoughtfully curated unique presentation of combination of Ghazal and Kathak. The opening dance was presented by local talented students, trained by Kathak Gurus Souvik Chakraborty and Ritusri Choudhary who had traveled all the way from India. The former was trained under Pt. Vijay Shankar, Vidushi Chetna Jalan & Pt. Birju Maharaj and is an empaneled artist of ICCR, EZCC, Sangeet Natak Academy. The latter was also trained under Kathak Maestro Pt. Birju Maharaj.
Ghazal Singer Prithvi Gandharv of Mumbai, India, then took the stage and mesmerized the audience with his baritone voice and impeccable singing. He has more than 1200 concerts all over the world, under his belt including concerts with Ghulam Ali and Shreya Ghoshal. Presently he is training under Hariharan. He was accompanied by Bobby Jutley on the tabla, Somenath Chakraborty (India) on the guitar, and Nadeem Ashrafi on the keyboard. He kept taking requests from the audience and tried to fulfill each. The audience was left applauding after every song and wanting more. What embellished the evening was the accompaniment of the Kathak dancers to some of the songs making it an absolute audio-visual treat for the attendees.
The Indian Idol finalist Chetna Bhardwaj was another celebrity artist who impressed everyone with her powerful voice and created quite an impact from her very her introduction song- Lambi Judai. Prithvi and Chetna sang a few songs together and Prithvi had moved to the keyboard from his harmonium by then. Souvik and Ritusri danced to some of the duets as well.
People appreciated Keka Kar, [the program director] for her vision of producing a live performance of Ghazal with Kathak dance. She was gracious enough to join Prithvi in singing 2 ghazals at his request.
High School Children from Katy ISD and Fort bend ISD helped in volunteering during the event.
Sound & light were provided by Chris Peltier and the event photography and Videography by Vijay Prajapati.
Biggest Sponsors of the event were Satish and Kamlesh Agarwal, Satish & Mona Sethi, Biswajit Kar, Parul Fernandes, Raj Bhalla, Surajit Dasgupta, Tapan & Becky Sinha.
