Eternal Appeal

The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) has organised a music festival of “innovation and fusion”,“Aadi Anant: From Here to Eternity”,which premieres on January 7. Conceptualised by tabla maestro Zakir Hussain,the festival explores the blending of North and South Indian melodies,as well as snippets of jazz.

Dr Suvarnalata Rao,Head of Indian Music as well as Programming Head and Research Scientist at the NCPA,says,“Our outlook is that we value tradition and innovation that makes tradition develop. We can’t freeze in time. We have to understand that music is a reflection of the times in which we live”. The festival travels to New Delhi on January 25 and 26,and Bangalore on February 10.

Shujaat Khan,51,a sitar maestro from the Imdadkhani Gharana,states that tradition is a strong component of Indian culture. “But we have to know what to keep in its pure form and what eddies we can open to new thought and experimentation,” says Khan.

The festival is rooted in the idea that “eternity (anant) has neither a beginning (aadi) nor an end (ant). It is inherent in Indian philosophy,where time is viewed as not being linear,but cyclical.”

Other performers include jazz artist Louis Banks on the keyboards,Ganesh Rajgopalan on the violin,and Rakesh Chaurasia,nephew of flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia,on the bansuri.