Monday, February 19, 2018

Sitar Maestro Pt Sugato Nag

It was a huge blessing for me to accompany sitar maestro Pt Sugato Nag of Kolkata for 3 concerts in and around Brisbane last May - Friday 19th at Lift Gallery in Maleny, Saturday 20th at QLD Multicultural Centre in Brisbane, Sunday 21st at Studio 93 in Byron Bay. In each of the out-of-town concerts, Sugato-da's daughter Sohini Nag gave a lovely Bharatanatyam dance performance. The Brisbane concert was the launch of our publicity for Sangeet Mela 2017, and featured local Bharatanatyam star Padmalakshmi Sriram and some of her students.

Sugato-da and I had never met but had heard lots about each other thanks to our mutual friend and his student, Christophe Rossi, a French sitarist (now magician) living in Japan, so I'm very grateful to Christophe for this introduction. I had such a wonderful time with Sugato-da and his family over the weekend with beautiful music and eloquent company. He really enjoys living and shares that joy, whether with his wonderful enthusiasm for the qualities of each individual raga, or effusing about Australia's natural beauty.

Photos by Brian Sullivan - see the full album at his Facebook page.

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