| Raaga Power By Kavita Chhibber Narula
Indian performing arts’ determined stand.
The opulent chandeliers slowly dim to cast a shimmering
glow; the resonant chanting of “Om” reverberate all
around; a mellifluous voice breaks into the Saraswati
Vandana. A stylish Kathak recital follows before an
audience that sits in the baithaki style of the maharajas.
These rich sounds of celestial music serenade the start
of a 12-hour Indian classical music concert, transporting
you to the era long gone with the royals and royalty,
which placed classical music artists on a pedestal.
Lest you think you are in India or the royal palaces
of Jaipur, let us turn up the lights and welcome you
to the Inaugural Sursaagar Classical Music Festival
in Atlanta, Georgia.
While tens of thousands of Indian Americans are immersed
in Bollywood shows this summer and thousands others
are being anointed as blue blooded Americans, embracing
soccer, piano lessons, hip hop, or indipop music, a
select few are trying to sustain the Indian classical
art forms and helping showcase the rich and vibrant
culture of India in America.
This movement strives at the grassroots with Indians
who came here 30 years ago to live the American dream
as its foot soldiers. They had worked hard and found
the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Today some of them are trying to live vicariously through
their children by pushing them to learn Indian classical
dance or an instrument or vocal music to give them a
sense of a cultural identity borne of their native land.
Dance and music schools have consequently mushroomed
everywhere, including those by several renowned celebrity
artists, such as classical vocalist Pundit Jasraj, Sarod
maestro Ali Akbar Khan, actress and Bharat Natyam dancer
Padmini Ramchandran, to name a few.
If there is one artist who put Hindustani classical
music on the world map it is sitar maestro Pundit Ravi
Shankar. Contrary to popular belief it was not his association
with the Beatles that was the beginning of Shankar’s
stint as India’s musical ambassador abroad.
“It was Yehudi Menhuin whom I had met in 1952 and had
struck a friendship with, who asked me to come over,
“ says Shankar. “I met George Harrison years later in
1966. I was already very well known in Europe and USA
by then. The only thing that happened was that my meeting
with George coincides with the first part of the hippie
movement. They called themselves the flower children;
there was freedom of everything, the youth revolution.
It was very sweet and innocent then and it helped people
become more open minded towards music of other nations.
Suddenly the younger generation took to my music in
a big way, and I became a super star in the pop sense.”
The Monterrey Pop Festival and Woodstock were two mega
events that propelled Hindustani classical instrumental
music onto the American pop stage. Today, however, Ravi
Shankar rues his stint at Woodstock. “When I played
in Woodstock I saw everything going downhill. Apart
from drugs, I heard there was violence, even rape, theft
and robbery. The superficiality with which these people
were treating India, the clichÈd scenario with the so-called
Kamasutra parties with hashish, the mockery of Buddhism
really upset me. I would constantly admonish these people,
whenever they came to my concerts to stop taking drugs,
smoking, to behave themselves. I’d tell them, ‘You wouldn’t
be doing this if you went for a western classical music
concert. Indian classical music too, cannot be heard
like pop and rock.’ After my unpleasant experience at
Woodstock, I stopped playing at all pop and rock concerts,
much to the dismay of my managers who were trying to
cash in on my popularity, but I am very proud to say
I stood my ground and went through that period with
dignity. Of course, nowadays, I only play in closed
auditoriums like Royal Albert Hall, or Carnegie Hall,
where smoking or misbehavior is not allowed.”
Nevertheless these concert tours and the efforts of
several NRIs since the late 1960s saw the blossoming
of Indian Classical arts into the mega bucks business
it has become today. Two such stalwarts who have worked
tirelessly to promote the Indian classical arts in the
United States are Professor Balwant Dixit of the University
of Pittsburgh and Harihar Rao, the younger brother of
tabla maestro Taranath Rao, who lives in Los Angeles
and has run the music circle series of concerts for
almost 3 decades.
Harihar Rao came to Berkeley on a Fulbright grant and
recalls seeing very few Indian in Los Angeles. He would
be accosted by people, who would ask “Are you a yoga?”
because he wore Indian clothes. An airport official
once remarked about his sitar “Oh you are taking your
totem pole with you?”
“It showed the ignorance of the general population about
India and Indian culture. I have seen those days and
today, every weekend, Los Angeles has five to six Indian
activities big or small.”
Rao had already helped Ravi Shankar produce some of
the largest music festivals in New Delhi. When he came
to the United States in 1961 and Ravi Shankar started
his foreign tours, they started a musical circle in
Los Angeles and almost 30 years later it’s still being
run almost single handedly by Rao, with the who’s who
of Indian classical musicans performing there year after
year.
Dr Balwant Dixit’s home has hosted
scores of leading Indian musicians.
Dixit came to the University of Pittsburgh in 1961,
but as a student in Pune prior to that he had had the
enriching experience of seeing several maestros in concert.
When he came to Pittsburgh, determined to put Indian
culture on the map, he started by volunteering at the
international folk dance festival in 1962.
“I made costumes for the dancers. We were only 120 students
in the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon
together, but we volunteered to help in many areas be
it cooking, sewing, chauffeuring, carpentry, etc.” In
1984, Dixit’s name was suggested to the deputy ambassador
who was looking for people or organizations to bring
Indian classical musicians’ groups to the United States.
“We got 27 musicians from India and did 90 concerts
in seven weeks and raised $80,000.” The University of
Pittsburgh was requested by the Indian Council for Cultural
Relations and the Ministry of Culture in India to formulate
a bilateral cultural exchange program. This circuit
started inviting at least four groups of classical musicians
from India each year to perform and present workshops
and lecture demonstrations at participating universities
and colleges. Over the next few years a loose consortium
of some 75 universities and colleges was formed and
the program renamed the Center for the Performing Arts
of India (CPAI). Since then CPAI has become one of the
key Indian cultural organizations in the United States
that coordinates between 70 to 120 Hindustani classical
music concerts and lecture demonstrations for diverse
audiences and has raised over $1.7 million in support
of its activities.
“When I got some of the artists who are now very famous,
they were known in India, but no one knew them here.
They were hungry for money as well as name, but I made
it very clear to them that if they come they would do
so on my terms, because I am answerable to the university.
There was an 8-page document, which they had to sign.
We hosted a lot of them in our three bedroom house and
at times there were six to seven of them staying simultaneously
while my wife and kids would stay in one of the rooms.
In all 165 musicians have stayed with us. I mastered
all the airline schedules, destinations, till I knew
by heart all the routes we took,” recalls Dixit.
In North America, between 250 to 300 well-organized
concerts of Carnatic and Hindustani music are presented
each year by over 100 local organizers. These include
universities, colleges, music societies or associations,
temples as well as a few individual sponsors. Says Dixit,
“In USA if you look at the total population of people
of Indian descent its about 1. 7 million. Here 300 North
Indian concerts take place annually while even a huge
metropolitan cultural Mecca like Bombay hosts only about
100 concerts. So people have done much more here and
the credit goes to the NRIs, their wives, volunteers
who have worked tirelessly, for free, pampering and
paying big money to the musicians.”
The face of Indian classical arts has changed tremendously
since the 1960s, according to Rao and Dixit. The artists,
who were brought by them in the 1970s and 1980s to perform
are now high profile celebrities, no longer as accessible
and their fees have doubled or tripled. Says Dixit,
“They will tell you all sorts of false stories to get
more money, ask for false receipts, ask you how to avoid
paying taxes and other underhand things they get away
with in India. After Sept. 11 the immigration people
are cracking down even harder. I don’t allow such things.
Often the accompanists never get paid anything. The
main musician gets it all, the accompanist will get
a fraction. So I made arrangements for the accompanists
to be paid separately.”
Harihar Rao with George Harrison and Lakshmi Shankar.
As the musicians scramble for top billings, trying to
squeeze as many concerts into their tours, the quality
of performance deteriorates. Rao says by and large the
Indian population is not interested in classical music
unless it’s a big name like Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar
Khan. “Unfortunately with the globalization came the
short attention span and high energy consumption lifestyle,
which has affected the senior musicians. I have traveled
with Ravi Shankar and that life is horrendous. It’s
airport, hotel, concert hall and back, and at times
they’d forget where they played a week ago. This is
inimical to keeping the art going in the direction it
should have for the senior artists. After the 4th year
of anyone coming to perform in Los Angeles, I would
notice sameness and a very uninspiring mechanical reproduction
of sound. I shouldn’t say this about these great artists
but it’s the truth. You can distinguish this between
their earlier recordings and the later recording — the
vibrancy and inspirational innovation is no longer there.
It’s not like western music, which is written and you
just reproduce that.”
When Indian artists performed before small select Indian
groups, they knew that their audience comprised of true
connoisseurs who would be critical if they did not perform
their best and maintain the integrity of their art,
says Rao. “Today when they perform at huge halls where
you can’t even see the faces of the audiences or hear
yourself, it’s bound to be mechanical. Then the organizers
start looking at their watches, reluctant to pay overtime.
All these constraints have made it necessary to present
the music in a wholly different way compared to the
way it was presented in the old days when the princes
were able to support these arts. The contention by some
of the big names that they can generate more money than
their peers and so deserve more has also been a disaster
for a lot of the organizers, who cannot afford the financial
demands of some of the senior artists. It runs into
thousands of dollars. For the same amount I can bring
four talented artists with their accompanists instead.
They are as talented, though not as well recognized,
and give a much better musical experience than what
these stars give.”
The audience for the classical art forms is limited,
says Rao. “Even though we have a board of directors
with two or three very influential Indian businessmen
who have tried to give away free tickets to their friends
for concerts of younger musicians who are very good,
still people will not come, leave alone give donations.”
Rao observes: “The Indian community in recent years
seems to be hung up on several tangents. One is temple
building and I can’t even begin to count the number
of temples, murthi staphana and gurus coming here. This
glamour of film stars or popular musicians like Daler
Mehdi is a bigger draw. When Amitabh Bachchan brought
his group the front rows were $5,000 and the show was
sold out. There was a traffic jam going back to the
freeway from UCLA(Univesity of California in Los Angeles).
We do get small grants, but they are not adequate. This
is a purely Indian enterprise from which we hope others
will also benefit, but every time we write for a substantial
grant we get the comment that Indian community is so
rich — one of the richest in America — why doesn’t your
own community support you?”
Sudha Chandrasekhar, an accomplished dancer in several
classical dance forms, who runs a dance school in Michigan
with her three daughters, says: “The young Indian generation
has become very Bollywood conscious and believes that
the Indian art and culture can only be preserved through
the movies. They think what they see in the movies is
the real thing. I have a group of very dedicated parents
of 250 students who are learning under me and the people
I have taught from the 1970s and 1980s are keeping their
tradition. There are some students who have migrated
here and have set up dance schools and are teaching
traditional dance. However, most of the NRIs here do
not realize what we went through, the tapasya we did
to reach where we are and instead of giving us an opportunity
to grow and teach the traditional way, we too have to
compromise.”
Warren Senders.
Sashikala Penumarthi, a renowned exponent of Kuchipudi
who runs a dance academy in Atlanta while teaching credit
courses on Indian dance at Emory University, says though
she has seen a tremendous spurt in interest in the past
decade in classical dance, it’s a big challenge to teach
dance here. “In India they are already exposed to the
culture right from the time they are born. Here you
really have to teach them every single thing, even how
to walk gracefully. A lot of kids want to learn a dance
item and go away. When I was learning we had to go step
by step, but now a lot of students even in India want
to jump ahead, learn some major items and go on stage
and perform. The world is so fast now, nobody has any
patience to learn or go deep into the art.”
Padmini Ramchandran, a well-known actress and classical
dancer and part of the famous Travancore sisters, with
a Russian stamp in her honor, also started a dance academy
in New York in the 1970s after her marriage and migration
to USA. She says that most parents are more interested
in the Americanization of their children and are always
rushing around from one activity to another, leaving
little time for their kids to learn dance the proper
way.
Rao is contemptuous of the popularity of the whole Indian
dance scene. “These kids learn the Bollywood dances
and their glamour struck parents will shell out cash
and buy tickets for the entire neighborhood. I was a
judge at one such concert and was appalled at what these
kids are made to do on stage and it’s not going to change.
Rich families spend thousands of dollars on their child’s
arangetram, but if you ask them to support a musician
there isn’t much response. Ali Akbar Khan in fact said
once that Indian students are the worst, because their
commitment is very fickle, and families often bring
their young kids thinking oh my boy will be playing
the tabla in six months with the bhajans in the temple.”
Just as India lost hockey to the west and then yoga,
it seems the passion for the Indian classical art forms
is being taken more seriously by Westerners. Two such
Westerners are Matthew Rosenberg, a visiting scientist
at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
Cambridge, Mass, and his wife Katherine, a graduate
student in Anthropology and Women’s Studies at Brandies
University, Waltham, Mass.
While studying at the university of Michigan Rosenberg
heard a Sarod recital on CD by Ali Akbar Khan playing
raga chandranandan and was hooked. He started by learning
sarod from one of Michigan’s leading sitarists and music
teachers until a chance meeting with sarod maestro Buddhadev
Das Gupta and his son Anirban Das Gupta opened the doors
for him and he hasn’t looked back since.
Katherine started as a ballet dancer and soon tired,
looking for something more exotic. Initially she thought
of learning belly dancing, until she saw someone perform
Oddissi and was enthralled. “It was exotic and spiritual
at the same time.” To learn more about India, she took
courses in Hindi and Sanskrit, researched the origins
of Indian classical dance and ended up for a nine month
course at Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra’s dance school in
Bhubaneshwar.
Some others have gone a step further and made it their
livelihood. Nancy Lesh is a cellist who has been singing
dhrupad for 20 years; Sharon Lowen moved to India over
two decades ago and is a well-known exponent of Odissi.
Warren Senders and Steve Gorn are two internationally
renowned artists who excel at Hindustani vocal classical
music and Bansuri respectively. So what is it that attracts
them to the Indian classical art forms, considering
how difficult it is for a nonIndian to learn the intricacies
of Indian classical music or dance. “It’s true,” says
Rosenberg, “As far as music goes its easier for an Indian
to understand the grammar — in western classical music
rhythm and melody is not so important, harmony is, whereas
in Indian classical music it’s the opposite and it’s
a very hard mental switch. And that coupled with the
fact that the rhythms are so much more complicated.
The improvisation in Western music is often in free
form and it’s certainly not that way in Indian classical
music. It’s the whole architecture, whole grammar, what
phrases are important, what is the Rasa you are supposed
to evoke. Yet, it is so compelling. I had been working
for a long time with a rock band wondering how can you
put spontaneity and improvisation in rock. Why should
it be just aimless jamming and soloing, which you see
in bands like The Grateful Dead. That void was filled
in me by Hindustani music. It has structure, technique,
and also the emphasis on the Rasa and what you are going
to evoke from the music. It is a daunting task to master
all that and yet that is what makes it most exciting.“
Katherine says there are not many Odissi dancers in
the USA. “People are attracted to it when they have
a personal experience of either watching it live or
talking to an exponent of dance the way it happened
to me. A lot of Europeans are attracted to the classical
dance form from theatre and are interested in Rasa.”
According to tabla maestro Swapan Chaudhri, who performs
extensively both internationally and in India and also
teaches at the Ali Akbar Khan school of music in San
Francisco: “A lot of universities worldwide have a world
music department now. So the interest in Indian music
and a desire to learn has increased manifold. There
are different kinds of world music, but Indian music
has very rich, strong sentiments and feelings, which
really touches the heart in spite of being mathematical,
and that is what makes it so much more unique than other
forms of music.”
So where do the musicians and organizers see the Indian
classical music heading?
Tabla maestro Ustad Kader Khan, who comes from a long
lineage of musicians and runs the Kalavant Center for
Music and Dance in Manhattan in New York, says that
initially when he came to the United States in the late
80s he saw few Indians learning music. “Recently, however
I have seen Indian Americans showing an increasing interest
in the Indian classical art forms and I feel that in
the next 15 years or so we will see a revival in a big
way and a return to our performing roots. Many people
who came here 30 years ago were doctors and engineers,
not professional musicians. As a result many of them
had no interest in the classical performing arts. All
they wanted to do was to excel in their professions,
establish themselves and be financially secure. Now
that that has been achieved, suddenly they are missing
the music, the arts and are trying to expose their kids
to it. I feel that when these youth grow up and become
parents they will be the ones to really encourage their
children from the very beginning to enjoy a classical
art form.” Kader Khan also says that artists like Ustad
Zakir Hussain have really excited the imagination of
people with their innovations and performances with
artists of other ethnicity.
Dixit says that the organizers have also changed . They
are also becoming realistic. “People like me were willing
to take out the time, put money from our pocket, volunteer
ceaselessly, to make it happen. The younger hi-tech
generation is more focused on the business angle. The
dot.com people are not concerned about the young up
and coming musicians. They’d rather have a musician
who was at the peak 25 years ago, but now can barely
move his fingers on his instrument, perform, because
he is still a big name. I tell people why are you wanting
to see Vilayat Khan when his nephew Shahid Parvez today
is so much better. Or Purbayan Chatterjee who is 26
and an amazing sitar player.”
Rao agrees: “In the early 1960s and 1970s when these
artists came, the big incentive other than their music
was a visit to Disneyland! For them visiting Mickey
Mouse was as if it was a shrine for Ganesha! Now their
rates have skyrocketed and personally I would like to
encourage lesser known, but equally gifted artists from
India, because their economic involvement is at least
for now much more affordable and also because I want
the classical music audience to see the new lush crop
of the younger musicians that is available that may
go unheard in USA.”
Matthew Rosenberg..
Rao says that like Dixit he spent his own personal money
and invested much of his time to organize concerts.
Now in his 70s he is finding it hard to find a successor,
“Which idealistic Indian, who has the knowledge or connection
or vision to do a back breaking, thankless job like
that, or even have a spouse or family who will be supportive
in these endeavors, will help me continue the efforts?”
Dixit says barely 1 to 5 percent of Indians attend classical
music concerts. In large cities such as New York, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, and at university-sponsored
concerts, non-Indians constitute almost 80 percent of
the attendees. “It is safe to conclude that Indian classical
music even after it was brought to the attention of
audiences in North America some 40 years ago, has not
entered the mainstream.”
Dancer Chandrasekhar remains optimistic nevertheless:
“The arts are given to you as a heritage. Once when
I performed before Pundit Nehru he said Indian artists
have a fantastic tool in their hands to teach the world
the power of classical art forms and we must strive
to the maximum to let the world know about the beauty
of the culture of India. I know it’s hard, but for me
this is not a struggle. I have faith that in the years
to come Indian classical art forms will carve the niche
they deserve in the United States and the world.”
..-
End Of Article.....
|
