Singer Gaurav Bangia will be presenting two shows Swarmilan and Geetmala,to popularise Indian classical music on May 29 and 30 in the city The aftereffects of keeping Indian classical music limited to classes is evident with the general perception that classical music is an intellectuals forte. Working towards bridging the gap between traditional forms of Indian classical music and the popular version of Indian classical music,the glimpses of which can be seen in film music,singer Gaurav Bangia is all set to present two musical programmes in the city. The first programme is Swarmilan and is based on the compositions of eight Marathi music composers. I will be presenting songs of C Ramachandra,Sudhir Phadke,Hridaynath Mangeshkar along with others, says Bangia,a Delhite settled in Mumbai,who learnt Marathi just to be able to present the programme effectively. Bangia will be accompanied by Amruta Natu and Nobina Mirjankar as singers and Jitendra Kulkarni on music for Swarmilan. Milind Kulkarni will anchor the show. The second programme,titled Geetmala,will take place on May 30. Talking about the programme,Bangia says,The concept of this programme is based on the Binaka Geetmala,a famous programme of yesteryear. We have compiled evergreen songs of composers from across the country and will be presenting them in a four-hour concert. Both these programmes have been conceptualised by Gaurav Shah,says Bangia. A classical music exponent and student of Gandharva School,Delhi,Bangia was further trained in classical music by Ananth Vaidyanathan,who guided him in developing and improving voice culture,voice modulation,breath control and other singing techniques. With K L Saigal,Lata Mangeshkar,Begum Akhtar,Ghulam Ali,Mehdi Hasan,Cliff Richard and Bryan Adams being his personal favourites,Bangia feels,I want the younger generation to know what classical music is. It is the basis of all forms of music. Even film songs are based on classical music and a glimpse of a raga in a film song is soothing for all listeners and is appreciated as well. What this generation finds hard to perceive is the traditional form of classical music involving hour-long mehfils. I want to change that perception and introduce them to forms such as thumri,sufi music,bhavgeet and so on, concludes he. (Swarmilan will be held at Yashwantrao Chavan auditorium on May 29 at 9 pm and Geetmala will take place at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on May 30 at 6.30 pm)
