Indian Music and Dance Exams Recognised for QCE

The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) has recognised the Indian Music and Dance examinations held by Pandit Ram Sahai Sangit Vidyalaya (PRSSV) as contributing studies for the Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE), which most students receive at the end of year 12. The studies can contribute up to 8 non-Core credits out of the required 20 for a QCE, and advanced studies can contribute to improved ranking with QTAC for tertiary entrance.

PRSSV Ambassador in Australia, tabla player Shen Flindell, said “My students have been taking the exams in tabla for several years now, which has really motivated their learning in both the practical and theoretical sides of Indian classical music. The higher grades are really quite demanding in terms of both practice and study, so I hope this official recognition will give them even more incentive to prioritise tabla in their day.”

The next round of PRSSV Tabla Examinations are scheduled for Saturday July 11^th. As well as tabla, the recognised courses include Bansuri, Carnatic Vocal, Dhol, Harmonium, Hindustani Vocal, Kathak Dance, and Sitar. Music and dance teachers who are interested in presenting their students for PRSSV exams are requested to contact Shen Flindell by email at shen@ethnosuperlounge.com.

(Submitted for publication in Brisbane Indian Times, May 2015)

FROM THE PRSSV (UK) WEBSITE:

 INSTITUTE OF PERFORMING ARTS AND HERITAGE

PRSSV's World Music and Dance Examinations are structured to test ability of
the pupil at every level, starting with Grade 1 for a beginner and progressing to Grade 8 for an advanced level. A diploma course is available to those wishing to study further.

These examinations are accredited by the Open College Network Credit4Learning.

This accreditation is evidence that PRSSV examinations are audited to the same standard, quality and expectations as a GCSE or A Level, and are therefore recognised nationally.

PRSSV's Heritage skills qualifications are available in Oral History and in Collections Management and Interpretation at Level 2 and Level 3.

Concert with vocalist Sunita Tikare

On 14th February 2015 I accompanied vocalist Sunita Tikare, visiting Brisbane from Mumbai, in a small concert organised by Rahim Zullah, who also gave harmonium accompaniment. It was a most enjoyable concert, with a range of khayals, tarana, thumri, ghazal and bhajans. I really enjoyed Sunita-ji's rhythm sense. Here is a review published in Brisbane Indian Times March 2015 edition (official BIT clip here).

Sangeet Mela 2014 promotional videos

I'm very excited that Sangeet Mela 2015 is going ahead at QLD Multicultural Centre on Saturday 19th September. This year's Sangeet Mela will feature both North and South Indian classical music and dance. We are now requesting young artists under 25 to apply for the Sangeet Premi Rising Star Awards - entries close July 31st - and also seeking sponsors and organisations to support the event.

Please have a look at these two promotional videos highlighting how fantastic Sangeet Mela 2014 was. "Magic Moments" is just over 2 minutes long; "Highlights" is just over 9 minutes.

Beyond Optimism at Festival of Tibet 2015

In late January 2015 I participated in the performance art show "Beyond Optimism" at the Festival of Tibet, Brisbane Powerhouse. The show featured live painting by Tibetan artist Karma Phuntsok, poetry by Tibetan activist Sonam Lhamo, and live music directed by festival director Tenzin Choegyal and an array of fantastic improvising musicians.  Here's a playlist of videos from the performance:

Beyond Optimism by shentabla

Woodford 2014-15 with Pt Santosh and Sangeet Mishra

Over the New Year we were honoured to host 7th and 8th generation sarangi masters from Varanasi, Pt Santosh Mishra and his son Sangeet. Sangeet is a regular visitor to Australia - he was last here just a few months earlier for Sangeet Mela - but Santosh-ji had only been once previously, in 2012.

Woodford Festival, Hilltop (via)

Santosh and Sangeet were invited to perform at Woodford Folk Festival and this year's festival had quite an extensive Indian classical programme compared to other years. Along with the Mishras, I also accompanied sitarist Saikat Bhattacharya, and bansuri master Vinod Prasanna was up from Melbourne. I was very happy to meet Vinod's tabla accompanist Afroz Koya. I also arranged an impromptu performance at Bill's Bar for vocalist Tahir Qawwal. Along with the classical dance programmes, altogether there were 24 Indian classical performances!

Sarangi masters, Santosh & Sangeet Mishra & Shen at Woodford Festival (via)

In celebration of my 20th year of tabla I was given a tabla solo performance, with the wonderful accompaniment of Sangeet on sarangi. It was scheduled just before the excellent Taiko drumming group, Kizuna, so the Folklorica tent was full of drum lovers and the response to the tabla was really enthusiastic. I think it was a great combination of the two extremes of drumming - the intricacy of tabla followed by the raw power of taiko.

My tabla solo performance at Woodford. I look surprised but I was just speaking tabla bols.
Photo via Serendigity.

I think my favourite concert in the festival was the New Year's Sunset concert on the Hilltop Stage, overlooking the land around Woodford including the Glasshouse Mountains. It was a gorgeous sunset, the sound system was fantastic (and there were no nearby stages unlike the rest of the festival), and the music went really well.

Sangeet Mishra spontaneously joined Vinod Prasanna's Hilltop Sunset concert. It was an excellent jugalbandi.

After Woodford we had a small classical concert in Brisbane thanks to Swara Mohini association, and a packed house for "Sufi Soul Sangeet" in Mullumbimby with Tahir Qawwal and Barbi Joffe.

The Mullumbimby concert had a slightly different format - rather than doing a long classical set, we presented one short classical set at the start of the night, followed by light classical songs by Tahir and Barbi accompanied by Sangeet and myself. In the second set, Santosh-ji presented some light classical songs then accompanied Tahir and Barbi for the closing songs. I'm getting more and more into light classical genres and that night we presented Ghazal, Bhajan, Thumri, Qawwali and film songs, as well as the more classical Khyals that I'm more experienced with. Lots of fun!!!

Varanasi 2014 again!

Yes, we were in Varanasi in February. And then we went again in November. The main justification was that our daughter Saraswati would be turning 2 in late February and after that we'll have to pay for 3 air tickets instead of 2 plus a small fee for an infant.

Yuki took lots of lessons - daily lessons in Sanskrit with Pt Vagish Shastri and lessons every 2-3 days in Dhrupad vocal with Pt Ritwik Sanyal. You can read about her blog about the trip here (you might need to use an online translator.)

Meanwhile I had lessons around twice a week with Sri Hari Om Hari, a disciple of Pt Kishan Maharaj, excellent tabla player and nice guy. I came to know him first through his accompaniment of Tahir Qawwal's Qawwali group in a concert in Varanasi. We worked especially on light classical styles - Qawwali, Ghazal, Thumri, and variations of keherva and dadra - all my weak points in tabla accompaniment. I got so much great material that will take me a while to process, but it's enriching my playing already. Many thanks to Hari Om-ji.

The rest of the time I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful daughter Saraswati, and got to see a few concerts too.

Saraswati dancing in my Guru-ji's house.

Blessings on tabla at Guru-ji's house.

Saraswati with her new special small tabla.

First boat trip on "Gangan" for Saraswati.

On the bike around town.

Practice with sitarist Shrabani Biswas.

Performance by Devashish Dey (vocal) with Kishore Kumar Mishra (tabla), Rohan Naidu (violin) and Bhaiyan-ji (harmonium) - the first "Subah-e-Banaras" dawn concert on Assi Ghat.

On our last day in Varanasi, we got to see Pt Kumar Bose giving tabla solo in Dhamar and Teentaal. So powerful!!!

In Kolkata we were looked after very kindly by vocalist Supriyo Dutta. 

Various concerts, Sep-Nov 2014

A brief summary of my concerts (and a recording) from just before Sangeet Mela 2014 until our second India trip of the year...

Around Sangeet Mela 2014, we had fantastic international musicians Sri Sangeet Mishra (sarangi) and Sri Govinda Chakraborty (tabla - my senior guru-bhai) here, so we had a couple of small concerts out of town featuring them, plus a few more concerts in the following weeks with Sangeet-ji as guest artist in Tibet2Timbuk2 and Spirit of Bhakti.  All awesome, what great musicians!

• Fri Sep 5 Sunshine Coast: Spirit of Benares - Sangeet Mishra (sarangi), Govinda Chakraborty and Shen Flindell (tabla)

Govinda Chakraborty (tabla) and Sangeet Mishra (sarangi) playing together for the first time ever -  a totally awesome home concert.

• Sat Sep 6 Byron Shire: Spirit of Benares - Sangeet Mishra (sarangi), Govinda Chakraborty and Shen Flindell (tabla)
• Sun Sep 7 Kangaroo Point: Sangeet Mela 2014 (North Indian classical music and dance festival)
  
• Wed Sep 10 Brisbane: Tibet2Timbuk2 with Sangeet Mishra @ BigSound
   : Moorooka: Spirit of Bhakti with Sangeet Mishra
• Thu Sep 11 Lismore: Raga Shambhala - Tenzin Choegyal, Sangeet Mishra and Shen Flindell

Raga Shambhala tour in Lismore: Shen, Sangeet Mishra, Tenzin Choegyal

• Fri Sep 12 Kempsey: Raga Shambhala - Tenzin Choegyal, Sangeet Mishra and Shen Flindell
• Sat Sep 13 Wauchope: Raga Shambhala - Tenzin Choegyal, Sangeet Mishra and Shen Flindell
• Sun Sep 14 Uralla: Raga Shambhala - Tenzin Choegyal, Sangeet Mishra and Shen Flindell
  

Plenty of Indian community events as usual...

• Sun Sep 21 Banyo: Swara Mohini Morning Ragas #2: Shrabani Choudhury (sitar), Shen (tabla)

Shen with Smt Shrabani Choudhury, 21/9/2014

• Sat Sep 27 Private function: Shrabani Choudhury's sitar student concert
• Sun Sep 28 South Maclean: Navratri concert by students of Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School

My first performance on pakhawaj, accompanying Yuki at Sri Selva Vinayakar Temple in South Maclean for Navaratri.

• Sat Oct 4 Moorooka: Vijaya Dashami concert with Menaka Visvanathan and students
   : Aspley: BSQ Navaratri concert with Saikat and Shen
  
• Sun Oct 12 Banyo: Swara Mohini Morning Ragas #3 - Dr Indranil Chatterjee (sitar), Murali Ramakrishnan (bansuri), Shen (tabla)

Shen with Murali Ramakrishnan (bansuri), 12/10/2014

Shen with Dr Indranil Chatterjee, 12/10/2014
Indranil played a composition in Taal Pancham Sawari (15 beats) - very enjoyable!

• Fri Oct 17 Sydney: Spirit of Bhakti @ Super Retreat

Flying off to Sydney with Spirit of Bhakti - Shen, Menaka, Radha - just like a real professional band! :-)

• Sat Oct 18 Sth Bris: Crossbows Festival: Afternoon Ragas - Huib Schippers (sitar) + Shen
• Sun Oct 19 Burbank: Diwali concert - Vijaya Visvanathan, Spirit of Bhakti
• Sun Oct 26 Brisbane: SpringFlare - Tibet2Timbuk2, Dubmarine and more
   : Paddington: Yoga Bones Opening Party with Yuki and Shen

Recording the new CD by Spirit of Bhakti with Radha Bornstein. (Marcello Milani running the recording in the background.)

• Fri Oct 31 - Sun Nov 2 Stradbroke Island: Tibet2Timbuk2 @ Island Vibe
  - It was lots of fun! No photos though, sorry.

Sangeet Mela 2014

This article was originally printed (with just 2 photos) in the October 2014 (Diwali) edition of Brisbane Indian Times.
For more photos please visit our Facebook album.

Sangeet Mela 2014 Report

“Actually that was the first time I've been to a classical concert, and I really enjoyed it. I'm much more interested in my tabla practice and seeing more concerts now.” (18 year old tabla student”

“I think the Indian community were sceptical about what kind of event it would be and didn't turn up, but now that we know just how good a classical Sangeet Mela can be I promise I will bring lots of friends next year.”

“Thanks and congratulations for organizing such a beautiful event!!”

These are some quotes from attendees of the inaugural Brisbane North Indian Classical Music and Dance Festival, Sangeet Mela 2014. It was artistically a magnificent event but unfortunately the audience did not reflect the quality of the performances.

Ku Lillian Warrum (Odissi dance - Melbourne)

Ku Anjuha Ketheeswaran (sitar - Rising Star Award winner) accompanied by Sri Shen Flindell (tabla)

Sangeet Mela 2014 opened in the early afternoon with a beautiful Odissi dance performance by Lillian Warrum from Melbourne. The opening session also included performances by young artists receiving the Sangeet Premi Rising Star Awards. Anjuha Ketheeswaran presented Raga Madhuvanti on sitar; Rising Star runner-up in the vocal category Eman Rawi presented a beautiful khayal in Raga Bhimpalassi and showed that he certainly has a bright future; percussion category winner Arka Tito Basu played tabla solo in Jhaptaal and Teentaal. The first session concluded with special guest vocalist from Sydney Dr Vivek Apte, who presented a wide range of compositions in Ragas Miya Malhar and Hameer.

Sri Eman Rawi (vocal - Rising Star Award runner-up) accompanied by Sri Maharshi Raval (tabla - Sydney)

Sri Arka Tito Basu (tabla solo - Rising Star Award winner) accompanied by Sri Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium) and his guru Sri Shen Flindell (tali)

Dr Vivek Apte (vocal - Sydney) accompanied by Pt Govinda Chakraborty (tabla - Delhi), Sri Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium), and Sri Sangeet Mishra (sarangi - Mumbai)

The late afternoon session opened with Rising Star dance award winner, Ku. Helena Joshi, with live accompaniment by Shen Flindell (tabla) and several other notable local musicians. It was indeed a very impressive performance and the highlight of the Rising Star Award performances on the day. The final Rising Star Award performance was presented by young vocalist Senjuti Maitra who sang a Khayal on Raga Desh followed by a bhajan. One of day's highlights followed, with a tabla solo by Pt Govinda Chakraborty of Delhi, followed by duet in Rupak Taal with Shen Flindell. Rahim Zullah sang Raga Behag in sitarkhani teentaal, finishing with tarana in drut teentaal.

Ku. Helena Joshi (Kathak dance - Rising Star Award winner) accompanied by Sri Shen Flindell (tabla), Smt Menaka Visvanathan Thomas (vocal), Sri Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium), Sri Murali Ramakrishnan (bansuri)

Ku. Senjuti Maitra (vocal - Rising Star Award winner) accompanied by Sri Arka Tito Basu (tabla) and Sri Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium)

Tabla duet by Pt Govinda Chakraborty (Delhi) with Sri Shen Flindell (accompaniment by Sri Sangeet Mishra, sarangi - Mumbai)

Sri Rahim Zullah (vocal) accompanied by Sri Maharshi Raval (tabla - Sydney), Sri Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium) and Sri Sangeet Mishra (sarangi - Mumbai)

The evening session was worth the ticket price alone, opening with Kathak dance by Darshana Hingu, starting from Raga Shankara in Rudra Taal, followed by Teentaal and finally a Thumri. The Kathak dance performances with live accompaniment were very popular with the audience. Nothing quite matches the excitement of dancer's movements in synchrony with live tabla and vocal.

Smt Darshana Hingu accompanied by Sri Shen Flindell (tabla), Dr Mansey Kinarivala (vocal), Sri Joseph Abhay Nand (harmonium), and Sri Murali Ramakrishnan (bansuri)

Saikat Bhattacharya performed a heavenly Raga Bageshree with tabla accompaniment by Maharshi Raval (Sydney), and finally came the genuine grande finale, sarangi solo by 8^th generation master Sangeet Mishra accompanied by Pt Govinda Chakraborty on tabla, who both entranced and dazzled the music lovers in attendance with Raga Charukeshi and Mirzapur Kajri.

Sri Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar) accompanied by Sri Maharshi Raval (tabla - Sydney)

Pt Govinda Chakraborty (tabla - Delhi)

Sri Sangeet Mishra (sarangi - Mumbai)

Though the audience was smaller than expected, the passion shown by all in attendance demonstrated that there is a place for Indian classical culture in Brisbane, and the organisers have high hopes that Sangeet Mela will become a successful annual event not just attracting audiences from our local region by from all around the country.  

End of night cast photo

For more photos please visit our Facebook album.

All the other little gigs, Jan-Sep 2014

From now on I'm going to save the blog for quite major events (like news about Sangeet Mela 2014, coming soon I promise). To satisfy my librarian side, which likes things complete, here are the all the other little gigs I had this year before September (which was huge):

• Fri Jan 3 Mt Ommaney: Sangeet Mishra (sarangi) and Shen (tabla)
• Sat Jan 4 Byron: Sangeet Mishra (sarangi), Tahir Qawwal (vocal), Shen (tabla)
• Sat Jan 11 Noosa: Radha Bornstein and Shen
• Sat Jan 18-19 Gold Coast, Mullumbimby: Shen on tour with Tenzin Choegyal and Tashi Lhunpo Monks
• Jan 29 fly to India (blog link)

• Mar 5 back from India
• Sat Mar 15 West End: Silk Road Musical journey India to Turkey.Sufi songs Feridun Avar. Tabla Shen Flindell
  
• Sat Apr 12 Clayfield: Radha Bornstein and Shen, special guest Menaka Visvanathan!
• Sun Apr 27 Sunshine Coast: Spirit of Bhakti - Radha Bornstein with Menaka and Shen

• Sat May 3 Camp Hill: Three Worlds Meet Vol II - Bart Stenhouse and Shen Flindell
• Fri May 9 Fortitude Valley: Toothfaeries and Tibet2Timbuk2
• Sat May 10 Brisbane: Shrabani Choudhury with Shen @ BSQ function
• Thu May 15 Shen and family fly to Japan
• Thu May 22 Tokyo: Taro and Shen @ Otokin
• Fri May 23 Kamakura: Indian classical music @ Magokoro - Taro & Shen
• Sun May 25 Kanda: Nada Yoga voice workshop - Yuki & Shen
• Tue May 27 Yokohama: T.C. Deane and Shen
• Fri May 30 Niigata: Nada Yoga with Yuki and Shen
• Sat May 31 Sapporo: Nada Yoga with Yuki and Shen
• Tue Jun 3 Shen and family arrive back in Australia
  
• Sun Jun 22 Banyo: Swara Mohini Morning Ragas #1: Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar)
• Sat Jun 28 New Farm: Tibetan charity event with Tibet2Timbuk2
  
• Sat Jul 12 BEMAC: 7th Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert (blog link)
• Sun Jul 13 Bowen Hills: Yogafest featuring Yuki and Shen, Spirit of Bhakti
• Sat Jul 19 Nundah: Songs of the Homelands - Saikat Bhattacharya (sitar) and Shen

• Sat Aug 9 Mullumbimby: Spirit of Bhakti (Radha Bornstein, Menaka Visvanathan, Shen Flindell)

Highlights? Spirit of Bhakti is going really very well - the combination of Radha and Menaka's voices is magical, and I'm proud to play music with them. Oh look, there was a trip to Japan. Yuki's Nada Yoga workshops went really well over there. I'm proud to play with her too. 

Many thanks to all the wonderful musicians who have invited me to play with them this year. I'm very lucky to have these opportunities, thank you.

7th Annual Ashu Babu Memorial Tabla School Concert

On Guru Purnima in July 2014, my tabla students and I celebrated our 7th annual tabla school concert. For the second year we held it in the beautiful QLD Multicultural Centre auditorium. All the kids did their best and as usual the main benefit I saw was all the extra practice and polishing of repertoire in the month before the concert. The concert itself is always a happy gathering of all the students and our family and friends. Many thanks to those who attended as well as Brisbane Indian Times for the little extra support necessary to make the event succeed.

All my gurus: Main guru-ji Late Pt Kaviraj Ashutosh Bhattacharya; first guru Sri Debapriya Bhattacharya; guru-ji's youngest son Dr Debabrata Bhattacharya; senior guru-bhai Sri Govinda Chakraborty; close guru-bhai Sri Manishankar Tripathi; other guru-jis I've had some lessons with Pt Nayan Ghosh and Pt Suresh Talwalkar.

Opening bhajan by Susmitha Ravi with Rhea Ravi on tabla; harmonium by Sri Joseph Abhay Nand

New beginners: Aaryan, Arun, Josh

More experienced youngsters: Mann, Rushi, Smit, Ashwin, Ayngaran, Siva

Intermediate: Avanish, Hari, Sivamsan, Nikhil, Rhea

Northside class: Bipro and Ishaaq

Gold Coast class: Thejan and Nitin

Advanced class: Sanjey, Jesinthan, Tito

My own tabla solo, in which I attempted to play at least one thing learnt from each of those tabla players who have strongly influenced me.

All the performers with certificates, featuring the Benares Gharana lineage.

Varanasi Feb 2014

Microblogging on Facebook has led me to neglect my regular old blog. Here we are in September and I'm writing about our family trip to Varanasi in February...

Yuki, baby Saraswati and I were in Varanasi for all of February, via brief stops in Kuala Lumpur and Kolkata each way. Yuki was having Dhrupad vocal lessons with her guru-ji Pt Ritwik Sanyal, and I was mostly supporting her by looking after our lovely baby Saraswati, who had a fantastic time in India. Saraswati took her first steps, spoke several words and turned one all in Varanasi. She loved all the action, animals, music and company and transformed from a very shy 11 month old into an outgoing 1 year old in just a month. We stayed in a nice apartment room with kitchen which allowed us to keep floor and food pretty clean, and she kept in very good health except for a runny nose.

Shortly after our arrival I took part in the Saraswati Puja home concert at my first Guru-ji Late Pt Ashutosh Bhattacharya's house.

Pt Kumar Bose gave a tabla solo performance on Assi Ghat for the Pt Anokhelal Mishra Memorial Concert. I'd badly sprained my ankle on the ghats a few days earlier, and been stuck in bed until I dragged myself out for this.

My personal highlight of the trip was taking a 4 day workshop with tabla master Taalyogi Pt Suresh Talwalkar. His student Praveen Uddhav is professor at BHU so there is a bunch of ready and willing students for Pandit-ji to come and teach every few months. We covered a range of kaydas, tihais and tukaras in a whole range of interesting chands, with a lot of offbeat accents developed in a systematic way. I really enjoyed and benefited from this introduction to his style of tabla and look forward to the next opportunity.

On the weekend of Shivaratri as usual there were many concerts, including the annual Dhrupad Mela, where Yuki and I became known as Saraswati's mother and father. She turned one on the first day of Dhrupad Mela.

Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia (bansuri) with Bhavani Shankar (pakhawaj) and the awesome accompaniment of Subhanker Banerjee (tabla). Unseasonal rain played havoc with the marquees over the small audience, so everyone crammed onto the stage area. We managed to snag a deserted VIP couch.

Final item of Dhrupad Mela - U. Bahauddin Dagar (rudra veena) - sublime.