Taro in Oz 2011 (part 2)

On the second weekend of Taro's tour we performed twice in the Festival of Tibet at Brisbane Powerhouse. In the late afternoon Taro and I collaborated with Dva (Linsey Pollak and Tunji Beier) in a free concert entitled "Dva Ragaspace", as part of BEMAC's The Planet series. Linsey and Tunji are brilliant musicians and it was an honour to perform with them. Firstly Taro and I performed a 20 minute Indian classical piece, then Dva performed a couple of their pieces on reeds and South Indian percussion. We then improvised together for 20 minutes which was lots of fun! This was our first chance to play together and having really enjoyed Dva's improvised sessions at Woodford Folk Festival I'd really looked forward to this chance, hopefully the first of many.

Taro and Shen


Linsey Pollak


Tunji Beier

Dva Ragaspace jam session

In the evening we had the "Tibet: Awakened Heart concert for flood relief". In the first half we got to hear 4 Tibetan ladies singing traditional Tibetan songs. Taro was asked to play with 3 of them, and did a great job of accompanying the Tibetan melodies after hearing them only that afternoon in soundcheck.

The concert opened with chanting by this monk.

This is Pema who is 13 years old and was born and grew up in Australia but obviously loves Tibetan songs because she played excellently.


Taro with Jamyang Dolma

Tibet2Timbuk2
with special guest Taro Terahara

The following day, we were joined by sarangi master Sangeet Mishra, with whom we toured Australia in 2009. We were hosted by the wonderful folks at Sri Saileshwara Sai Baba Temple in Virginia, north Brisbane. We played Raga Puriya Dhanashri in jhaptaal and teentaal, followed by a dhun. Straight after the concert we had dinner and zipped off to the airport so I could catch a flight to India in time for Saraswati Puja two days later.