What to expect at Parampara Series National Festival of Dance and Music

Started 21 years ago by Natya Tarangini and Padma Bhushans Dr Raja Radha Reddy, the Parampara Series National Festival of Dance and Music will commence on September 22 in the capital. The three-day-long festival is an endeavour to redefine India’s rich cultural heritage. Festival director Kaushalya Reddy says that they want to bring quality concerts to the capital. “Art can thrive only when there is an audience and that can only happen if you are good at the arts. A master performer has the ability to transport the audience to another world,” she adds. Mumbai artistes performing at the festival this time, tell After Hrs about their expectations...

Rakesh Chaurasia

Flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, who will be performing a jugalbandi with Purbayan Chatterjee, has been associating with the sitar player for many years now, touring and even bringing out albums with each other. But Rakesh feels that a good jugalbandi does not involve just bringing two artistes on stage. “The nature has to match first. Then the music comes in,” he says. That’s the reason he feels that he and Purbayan match each other so well. The flute player had performed at the festival a couple of years ago, and this is the second time that he will be part of it. “Radha and Raja Reddy are such accomplished artistes. It is an honour for me to be invited to perform there,” he adds.

Rajashree Shjirke

Kathak dancer Rajashree Shirke, who has been trained in kathak by the Late Guru Madhurita Sarang of the Lucknow, Jaipur and Benaras Gharana, is delighted to be part of a festival which has the word ‘Parampara’ in it. “The artistes performing there believe in tradition and culture,” says the teacher, choreographer and writer, who has been involved with teaching the dance form to underpriviledged girls for quite some time now. “We want to pass on whatever we have learnt from our gurus to the newer generations,” she believes. At the festival, she will be performing todas and tukras of the form and later, will perform the Raavan-Mandodri samvaad.

N Rajam

The violin virtuoso who had started the musical instrument at the tender age of three, will be sharing the stage with her daughter Dr Sangeeta Shankar and her granddaughters Ragini and Nandini Shankar for the festival. More than anything else, she feels that it will be inspiring for youngsters to see the third generation perform on stage. Rajam, who is performing at the festival for the first time, is also looking forward to meeting her fellow colleagues and musicians.