On the 15th of January, on a quiet, cold Saturday evening, a group of talented musicians reached out in their own unique way to the victims of the terrible Tsunami.
The concert was organized by Mirjana Lausevic- Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Minnesota. In a very short period of time of less than two weeks, she was able to garner support and a plethora of well known musicians chimed in to make this a grand success. The event was supported by UN Association of Minnesota, MPR, Twin Cities Public Television, Whole Foods Market, Women's club of Minneapolis, Thai Association of MN, Indian Music Society, and AID-MN.
The concert was free but the people were encouraged to open their hearts and purses and give generously. Nearly 500 people who cared about the Tsunami victims, braved the cold and came for the concert. By intermission, the collections were around $8500.00 and Mirjana once again stood on the stage and requested the audience to help meet the magical $10,000.00 mark.
People listened again, and whole heartedly supported the request. Some people emptied their pockets on the way out keeping just enough money for the car park! They collected more than $11,000.00 and the entire proceeds were donated to the UNICEF which targets its activities towards the needy children. (More than 1 million children have been affected by the terrible tragedy.)
From the Indonesian Gamelan Ensemble, to the Somali music, from the Swedish and Norwegian Fiddle to 'sacred harp' singing, from the powerful solo music of Tim Eriksen to the South Indian veena recital of Nirmala Rajasekar, the evening was a treat.
The performance of Nirmala was the piece-de-resistance of the evening. She selected two numbers which related to the child Krishna. Later she got the audience in a sing-along session with the heart rendering 'Raghupathi raghava raja Ram'. The people were waiting to participate and the whole hall reverberated to the divine song. She was joined by the duo of Srinivasan on the mridangam and Marcus Wise on the tabla.
At the end of it all, the audience stood up in unison and applauded the trio. From 7pm to 11pm it was an evening of music and bliss. Even as we walked back to our cars in the cold Minnesotan weather, we could not help feel warm in our hearts and a sense of gratitude to be a part of this wonderful effort to raise funds for the Tsunami victims.
This is the positive side of the Tsunami (if at all there is one!) - the spontaneous outpouring of compassion and love for someone thousands of miles away whom you have never set your eyes upon. I hope this feeling continues to grow and ends up creating one big caring family called humanity.
