ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Blue Planet is a four-month-long digital festival of Indian Classical Music featuring 21 Carnatic and Hindustani musicians. The festival will consist of several concerts and events being made available on the Dhvani website each month. A $200 value, this set of programs and concerts will be included at no additional cost in the 2022 annual Dhvani membership. Some concerts will be released in December will also be available to those who have renewed their 2022 membership. Please renew your Dhvani membership today and don’t miss out on any of these very special programs.
Concept
The festival seeks to invoke the Living Ecology of our Planet and its beautiful but fragile natural resources. It hopes to draw analogies between the Natural World and the Ecosystem of the Arts. It seeks to suggest that both ecosystems need to be cared for, understood and respected. In harming them we only harm ourselves.
Concerts under the Sky
Each concert and performance will be set in natural, outdoor settings in carefully chosen locations in the midst of mountains, sacred groves, mangroves, forests, river banks, beaches and in some of India’s endangered biodiversity zones. Guided by environmental groups and organisations working for social justice in different parts of the country, we hope to initiate preliminary conversations and meetings with artists and these groups to point at issues related to Climate Change, sustainability practices and Climate justice, which underpin the efforts of all peoples’ movements.
We have taken great care to ensure that we are not merely using Nature as a pretty backdrop; we are trying to include the spirit of local and regional conservation and sustainability practices and ideas so that they reflect in subtle ways in the films as we explore the links between Indian Classical Music and contemporary discourses on Ecology and Conservation.
ULHAS KASHALKAR
Ulhas Kashalkar (b 1955) is one of the foremost Hindustani vocalists of our times and an equally respected Guru. His principal Gurus were Pandit Ram Marathe and Pandit Gajananrao Joshi and his training while mainly in the Gwalior lineage has also given him very substantive abilities in expressing the aesthetic features of the Jaipur and Agra gharanas as well. His music has an intellectual, austere quality based on values of unwavering and high classicism. Ulhas ji has been a resident Guru at the ITC SRA in Kolkata. Highly regarded by discerning listeners, he has created a distinctive balance between being a sought after concert artist, an introspective musician and a teacher who has shaped the musical personalities of several very promising musicians.
YOGESH SAMSI
Yogesh Samsi (b 1968) is one of the most sought after tabla artists today. He is the son of Pt. Dinkar Kaikini (a renowned vocalist of the Agra Gharana) and Smt. Shashikala Kaikani, also a musician pf repute.
Beginning at the age of 6, Yogesh took training from Pt. H. Taranath Rao for 3 years and thereafter at the age of 10 under the tutelage of the Master percussionist and Guru, Ustad Allah Rakha of the Punjab Gharana for 23 long years. Yogesh Samsi is an extremely versatile and sensitive tabla artist who has accompanied greats including Kathak Maestro Birju Maharaj, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hari Prasad Chaurasia. He is also a great teacher and many of the young tabla artists making a mark today are his students.
TANMAY DEOCHAKE
Tanmay Deochake is one of the world’s most in-demand young harmonium players. He trained under his grandfather Gopalrao Deochake (on synthesiser as well as harmonium) and also received advanced instruction from Pandit Pramod Marathe. Tanmay is able to seamlessly complement vocals, Tabla solo and other indian classical instruments with his harmonium. He has performed world over and accompanied revered artists like Pt. Swapan Chaudhari, Ut. Zakir Hussain, Smt. Ashwini Bhide, Smt. Arti Anklikar, Ut. Rashid Khan, Pt. Yogesh Samsi, Pt. Sanjeev Abhayankar, Ut. Taufiq Qureshi, Pt. Vijay Ghate, Pt. Shaunak Abhisheki, Pt. Ramdas Palsule, Smt. Manjusha Patil, Rahul Deshpande and Kaushiki Chakraborty . His understanding of aesthetics and demonstration of versatility comes through as he is constantly pushing the boundary to expand his creativity with his instrument: the Harmonium.
February 12, 2022 8:30 AM EST
