Concert “East Meets West”

The Consul General of India and Mrs. Chandini Dayal, in association with Salon de Virtuosi and Citibank NRI Business, organized a concert “East Meets West” on Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at the Consulate Ball Room.

The first part of the concert, representing the West, featured the Amphion String Quartet (ASQ) artistes of prominence – Katie Hyunand David Southorn on Violin, Wei-Yang Lin on Viola and Mihai Marica on Cello. Their performance drew instant applause from the audience for the vigour and immaculate coordination.

The East was represented by Anirban Dasgupta on Sarod, with Dibyarka Chatterjee on Tabla, who mesmerized and enthralled the audience with their melodious Hindustani Ragas.

Anirban Dasgupta is the youngest son and disciple of renowned Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta. He grew up with the very best ambience of Indian classical music and took to playing the Sarod from an early age under the tutelage of his illustrious father. With inspiration, inborn talent and grueling toil and dedication, Dasgupta has achieved success as an exciting and mature artiste, and yet remains extremely humble and modest. He won the first prize in the All India Radio Competition and has performed widely in India, UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the United States. His first CD was released in 2002 and has four CDs to his credit.

Dibyarka Chatterjee, the young Tabla player from the Farrukhabad Gharana, is the son and disciple of Pandit Samir Chatterjee. He has performed with many renowned musicians, including Pandit Jasraj, Lakshmi Shankar, Mashkoor Ali Khan, Ramesh Mishra, Shubhra Guha, Partha Bose, Tripti Mukherjee, Suman Ghosh and Hidayat Khan, to name a few, besides collaborating with music groups like the Dance Theater of Harlem (in 'South African Suite'), the Battery Dance Co. (in “Songs of Tagore”) and with fusion musician/composers like Salman Ahmad (Junoon), Douglas Cuomo, John McDowell (on the award-winning documentary “A Son’s Sacrifice”), Gary Lucas & Najma Akhtar (on their collaborative album "Rishte"), etc. He has also performed in many prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall, the UN General Assembly, Lincoln Center & Asia Society in NYC, Place des Arts (Montreal), the Google Amphitheater (Palo Alto), Salt Lake Music Conference (Kolkata, India), Pratisruti Festival (Bhopal, India), etc.

The concert came to an end with a scintillating performance of Kathak dance by Brinda Anonya Guha, who has been learning this classical north Indian dance form for seventeen years from Kalamandir of NJ Dance School under the guidance of her mother Malabika Guha. Her performance invigorated the atmosphere and delighted the entire audience.

Co-founder and a principal dancer of the contemporary Indian Dance Ensemble, Kalamandir Dance Company, Brinda has been invited to perform solo throughout the US. She has also done solo and group performances in England and India. In 2005, she wrote and directed her own dance production entitled “RISE,” based on the poems of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. “RISE” travelled to the Indian cities of Shillong, Kolkata, and Santhiniketan. She has also acted as the lead in Rabindranath Tagore’s epic play “Red Oleanders” for the South Asian Theatre Festival as well as in King Sudraka’s “The Little Clay Cart”, directed by Farley Richmond.

The function which was attended by 130 persons, who acclaimed the performance and gave the artistes a standing ovation, concluded with dinner.

*****