JOIN USThere is no dearth of musical events in the City. Bengaluru has always been home to some electrifying performances by emerging and established artistes.
At one such event held at Chowdiah Memorial Hall recently, celebrated musicians, such as Vidwan Vikku Vinayakram and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and popular bands like ‘Indian Ocean’ and ‘ARKA’ came together and enthralled the music-lovers in thee City with classical strains and contemporary music.
They were performing here after two well-received performances in Chennai and Hyderabad. The audience enjoyed the musicians’ own compositions and tracks at the show that consisted of various genres of music.
Vidwan Vikku Vinayakram, a ‘ghatam’ expert, and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a ‘veena’ exponent, took to the stage and mesmerised the audience with their unique percussions and strains. The audience enjoyed the quick ‘jathis’ and flowing tunes as they set the stage on fire. ‘ARKA’, a popular band, also performed their own compositions for an hour.
Their popular tunes included a lot of fusion tracks and retained the special
element of Indian ragas. They also enthralled the audience with a variety of folk tunes.
“The show consists of a melange of music,” said Selva Ganesh, the ‘kanjira’
player of ‘ARKA’.
Popular band ‘Indian Ocean’ also performed their well-known tracks such as ‘Kandisa’ and ‘Bandhe’. The special element, however, was a track they had composed with Vikku Vinayakram, which comprised a confluence of elements of music, from classical to contemporary. The biggest highlight of the evening was the collaboration between the old and the new, the coming together of the raga pandits and the rock artistes for an electrifying jam titled ‘Maa Rewa’. The audience enjoyed this the most. The musical concoction balanced the different strains of rock, Indian classical, contemporary fusion and a melange of percussion beats. Deepu, a student said, “The concert reached out to a number of people as it not only consisted of classical elements but popular tunes as well. It was a unique evening where the classical tunes rocked and rockstars effortlessly sang in ragas.”