Genre Indian classical music Location(s) Nazrul Mancha, Kolkata | Dates 5–6 January 2013 Founded by Shreeranjani | |
Swara Samrat Festival (SSF) was an Indian classical music concert which was organised at the Nazrul Mancha auditorium in the Indian city of Kolkata on 5–6 January 2013 by Shreeranjani, a cultural organisation headed by the Sarod maestro Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. The event was dedicated to The Immortal Duo - Swara Samrat Ali Akbar Khan and Bharat Ratna Ravi Shankar (who died on 11 December 2012). Artistes like Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Aashish Khan, Dr. Girija Devi, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri and Ustad Zakir Hussain performed in this festival.
Contents
Background
The two-day-long musical extravaganza was organized by Shreeranjani music organization and led by Indian sarod maestro Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. The festival was initially planned as an event to commemorate the 90th birth anniversary of Ali Akbar Khan. Ravi Shankar was informed about the event. But after the death of Ravi Shankar on 11 December 2012 the organisers decided to dedicate this program to the Sitar maestro too. Majumdar called this festival a dedication to "The Immortal Duo – Swara Samrat Ali Akbar Khan and Bharat Ratna Ravi Shankar."
In an interview, Indian sarod player Aashish Khan, (who was also a performer in this event) told that Tejendra Narayan Majumdar worked very hard to organise this musical festival and found it unfortunate that no one came forward to help Tejendra Narayan.
Performances
Some of most prominent classical musicians of India performed in this musical extravaganza.
Shivkumar Sharma (Santoor) performed with Anindo Chatterjee (Tabla), Birju Maharaj (Kathak) performed with Subhankar Banerjee (Tabla), Hari Prasad Chaurasia performed with Subhankar Banerjee (Tabla), Jasraj (vocal) performed with Ramkumar Mishra (Tabla).
Aashish Khan played Sarod with Swapan Chaudhuri (Tabla). Girija Devi (vocal) performed with Samar Saha (Tabla) and Zakir Hussain (Tabla solo) performed with Dilshad Khan (Sarangi).