It’s raining ragas

Tune in to an evening of traditional monsoon ragas and instrumental fusion by santoor maestro Rahul Sharma

It's raining ragas

Tune in to an evening of traditional monsoon ragas and instrumental fusion by santoor maestro Rahul Sharma

Banyan Tree's Barkha Ritu 2011 music festival is celebrating its sixth consecutive year in the city, and this time they will celebrate the monsoon with a performance by Santoor player Rahul Sharma. Sharma has been a favourite among Pune's music lovers and is geared up to enthrall everyone. According to him, Barkha Ritu is special because it highlights the aspect of seasonal ragas in Indian classical music.

Santoor player Rahul Sharma

As far as connecting music with the rains, he explains that there are ragas which were made according to a 24 hour time cycle and based onu00a0 seasons. Hence, Raga Bahar is played at the arrival of spring while Malhar is a monsoon Raga. "I will be presenting a few monsoon ragas in my own short compositions. Ragas like Megh, and Miya ki Malhar will be played in a contemporary style," he shares. "I will also be playing some compositions from my new album which featured renowned saxophonist Kenny G. There will also be compositions from my album Confluence which was in collaboration with French pianist Richard Clayderman."

Accompanying Sharma will be Manas Chaudhary on bass guitar, Mukund Raj Deo on tabla, Avinash Chandrachud on keyboards and Aatur Soni on drums. Having collaborated with various musicians, does it give way to improvisation at a live show or at a recording? He explains, "Collaborations should be well thought of and then attempted. Out of the 50 albums that I have done, half of them are classical and the rest may be termed collaborations and fusion. The fact that I collaborated with artistes like Kenny G and Richard Clayderman helps in taking the Santoor to a new listener, which is always welcome."

He adds that during on-stage collaborations everything is spontaneous and not rehearsed, which makes it exciting. The event will also feature a performance by Ustad Shujaat Khan on the Sitar.

On: July 30, 6.30 pm
At: Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium, Kothrud.
Call: 32946252/ 9422317989

Donor cards are priced at Rs 500, Rs 400, Rs 300 and Rs 200. They are available at New Rhythm House, Deccan Gymkhana (Call 25521335); Landmark- SGS Mall, Camp (Call 40068888).