The Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) will be hosting the seventh edition of the annual Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance from March 13 to March 29, 2009.
This year, the festival features a total of forty-nine concerts across a variety of genres – north (Hindustani) and south (Carnatic) Indian classical music on vocal, sitar, veena, violin, flute in solos, duets and ensembles, and a variety of dance styles – Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi, Kathak and Odissi.
The featured artistes in the ticketed portion of the festival, organised in collaboration with the Esplanade, are a glittering galaxy of stars of the Indian music scene.
There are two Carnatic vocal concerts by two superbly entertaining artistes. Aruna Sairam (March 25) and T V Sankaranarayanan (March 26)
The Esplanade festival commences on March 22 with a dance quartet, featuring Roja Kannan and group, who will be presenting a thematic Bharata Natyam recital specially choreographed to songs of the patriotic poet, Bharathi. The festival concludes on March 27 with the Master of the Sarod (an ancient Hindustani fret-less stringed instrument), Amjad Ali Khan whose control of this complex instrument is breath-taking. He will be accompanied by his two sons, Amaan Ali and Ayaan Ali, who are both masters in the making, and by a couple of outstanding percussionists on the tabla and pakhawaj.
Tickets are priced from $30 to $150 for these concerts, and substantial discounts are available for seniors, students, bulk purchasers and season’s ticket buyers. Tickets are available island-wide via SISTIC (www.sistic.com Ph: 6348-5555).
The venue for the remaining concerts will be the premises of SIFAS at 2A Starlight Road (off Rangoon Road, near Farrer Park MRT). These concerts, which are all free for admission to the general public, feature a wide range of local and invited talent from the region.
In particular, from India, two outstanding vocalists of the new generation, Savitha Narasimhan and Sikkil Gurucharan will be presenting full length Carnatic vocal performances on March 20 and 28 respectively. Another invited artiste, Souravbrata Chakraborty will present a sitar solo on the opening night of the festival on March 13. The other performers are a choice pick of local talent who were either selected through a rigorous auditioning process judged by eminent artistes from India or are graded, senior artistes who already have a strong local reputation.
Such a long festival of Indian classical music and dance featuring these many concerts over so many genres, and run entirely by a not for profit, community based organization like SIFAS is unparalleled in the Indian diaspora.
