Freedom Concert 2010 a Big Success

August 23, 2010 No Comments by admin

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Ever since Sanjay Raina announced the Hari Prasad Chaurasia Concert 2010 last year, he became the butt of jokes, and sometimes these jokes even came from his close associates. When he announced that he would have Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia performing in Sydney initially in March 2010, no one expected the show to pull though. In the midst of popular performers like Daler Mehndi, Gurdas Mann, Jagjit Singh, Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan who were performing in Australia, Sanjay was advised he had no chance of pulling his show together. Sanjay who normally lives in India, had a difficult time as coordinating things from India and it was proving to be too time consuming.

Sanjay worked upon a strategy. He met Santoor maestro, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma in Mumbai and convinced him to come to Sydney. Sanjay also rejigged the dates and moved the concert to August to coincide with the Indian Independence year and called it Freedom Concert 2010. The ideas appealed to Shiv Kumar Sharma who was more than happy to perform with Hari Prasad Chaurasia, his close associate. After all they had created magic many together many a times in the past and had many hit Bollywood labels under the combined name of Shiv-Hari.

While his detractors were laughing in glee at the postponement of his concert, Sanjay was working on a plan. He never lost his belief in the Freedom Concert brand and always believed that Indian classical musicians have a strong brand name and that Indians abroad would always turn up to listen to these maestros. He also personally contacted all the ticket holders of the earlier concert and assured them of a bigger and better concert in August.

These days Sanjay is having the last laugh and his phone does not stop ringing these days. Freedom Concert 2010, both in Melbourne and Sydney has been a great success. The Sydney concert had over 700 people and not a small feat given that it was a hectic day for the Indian community living in Sydney. There was flag hosting ceremony in the morning followed by the UIA Fair with Bollywood singer Mika Singh performing and then the Freedom Concert in the evening. The Freedom Concert brand is now firmly entrenched in the minds of people and this brand belongs to Sanjay and his company Core 4 Entertainment.

The evening started with Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s performance. As soon as he appeared on the stage, he was given a standing ovation by the audience. Shiv Kumar Sharma was accompanied on the stage by Vijay Ghate on the tabla and Takahiro Arai on tanpura. Interestingly Takahiro is a Japanese disciple who has made Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma as his guru. Vijay Ghate is considered by vocalists, instrumentalists and classical dancers as one of the best of the younger generation tabla players of India. A disciple of Suresh Talwalkar, Vijay is known for clarity, accuracy, and purity in his rendering of various complicated tabla compositions. Shiv Kumar termed Vijay Ghate as one the best tabla players in India.

The next hour was pure magic as Shiv Kumar Sharma enthralled the audiences with his variations and tunes on the santoor. Some of his low notes were absolutely marvelous and well liked by the audiences. His performance included the traditional pattern of presentation for North Indian Classical Music, beginning with the slow, meditative Alap. Throughout the performance, the tabla skillfully echoed the complex rhythmic phrases of the Santoor. Shiv Kumar played many ragas but his rendition of the Pahari music in Santoor was mind blowing. The recital finished with a light classical dhun played in the charming Raga Pahadi, a melody associated with the beauty of the valleys and mountains in Punjab and Jammu.

Until Shiv Kumar Sharma came along the Santoor was categorized as a simple folk instrument of Kashmir. Shiv Kumar Sharma has singularly elevated this folk instrument to the concert hall status. During the break, the Indian consul general Amit Dasgupta was requested to come on the stage and in a humble gesture took his shoes off before appearing on the stage. While the maestros were performing all the members of the audience had a smile on their face.

One of the little known facts is that Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia was born into a family of wrestlers in Allahabad, India. Young Hari Prasad began training as a wrestler until one day he innocently picked up the bansuri, a single event that changed the entire course of his life as well as the history of music.

When Hari Prasad Chaurasia appeared on the stage he was given a standing ovation and he started by saying that he was pleased to be with his other part of the family in Australia. He was accompanied by Sunil Avachat on the flute, Vijay Ghate on the tabla and local player Yama on the tanpura. Throughout the recital Hariprasad alternated the main line of the melody with a great variety of improvised phrases many of which are playfully imitated by the table by Vijay Ghate. The longer the flute, the deeper its pitch and longer flutes are also difficult to blow and finger. Pandit Hari Prasad displayed amazing mastery of the flute with his introducing innovative fingering and blowing techniques.

At the end of the performance, Indian National Anthem was sung. If you missed this event, then make sure you are a part of Freedom Concert 2011.

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