Harmony: A Binational Concert
Date: May 8, 2006
Time: Evening 6.30-8.30
Venue: Sri Ram Centre Auditorium
Mandi House, 4, Safdar Hashmi Marg
New Delhi- 110001

Organized by:Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute
Funded by:Ministry of Human Resource Development

Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute

The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute is a unique educational enterprise that promotes mutual awareness and understanding between India and Canada mainly through facilitating academic activities. The Institute funds research, links institutions in the two countries, and organizes seminars and conferences. It is named after Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and a distinguished mediator and statesman.

Founded in 1968 by joint announcement of the Government of Canada and the Government of India, the Shastri Institute originally sought to encourage Canadian teaching and research on India. Focusing on the humanities and social sciences, it funded fellowships and distributed Indian books and journals to the libraries of its Canadian member institutions. The Institute's success in sparking interest in India Studies among Canadian academics led to a reciprocal interest in Canada among Indian scholars. In the early 1980s, SICI began to promote Canadian Studies in India and in the late 1980s it expanded its activities into development studies.

India Studies Programme

The purpose of the India Studies Programme is to promote understanding of India in Canada. India with its ancient civilization, rich history and heritage, mosaic of languages and cultures and post-colonial socio-economic developments has always been attractive to the scholars for diverse research activities and to the artists for cultural exchange. Under Institute's India Studies Programme, fellowships are provided to Canadian scholars, librarians and artists and Indian imprints are supplied to Canadian universities. In the past 35 years fellowships were awarded to 800 Canadian faculty members, researchers and students to further their study of India and Indian languages. The Institute's India office has been facilitating the affiliation process. So far the fellows have been affiliated with 113 prestigious Indian Institutions or renowned teachers of the arts in India. The Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resources, Government of India funds this programme.

Description On 'Harmony' a Bi-national Concert

Harmony is the name for the concert Shastri Institute is organizing to showcase our India Studies Art Scholars. This year we have awarded a substantial number of fellowships to Canadian students of performing arts to undertake training in different dance forms and vocal and instrumental music. They are affiliated with prestigious Institutions in India. To showcase their progress we are planning to hold a concert on 8 May from 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. at Sri Ram Center for Arts and Culture, Mandi House, New Delhi. We feel that this will not only promote their efforts but will also provide a platform for them to further their training in Indian performing arts.

Brief Bio of the Performers

Brandy Leary Seraikella and Mayurbhanj Chhau

Brandy has been training and studying both Seraikella and Mayurbhanj Chhau since 1998. She is the last disciple of Seraikella Chhau master Padamsree Guru Kedar Nath Sahoo and has trained in his lineage under Shasadhar Acharya in Delhi and his son Malay Kumar Sahoo in Seraikella. She received training in Mayurbhanj Chhau under Guru Janmenjoy Sai Babu in Delhi and Achintya Kumar Behera (a disciple of the great master Guru Sri Hari Nayak) in Bhubaneswar. She has received two Shastri Indo Canadian Arts Fellowships for her Chhau work and has dedicated her energies not only to training but to researching the history of the dance form, documenting archival photographs for preservation and creating a detailed movement analysis exploring the relationship between the two styles of Chhau.

A dynamic artist of diverse talents, Brandy is an engaging performer and pioneering Director and Choreographer. She is the founder and Artistic Director of "Anandam", an interdisciplinary theatre company that draws inspiration from performance styles of both Eastern and Western origins for the creation of new work that explores the spaces between dance and theatre, traditional and contemporary.

Her work explores image-based dance theatre with a visceral physicality. Seamlessly combining the ancient and the innovative she integrates a mature use of various performance styles combing them skillfully to create highly moving and haunting performance experiences. Brandy has created new works of theatre and dance using her deep understanding of the Chhau vocabulary to explore this incredibly versatile language in contemporary contexts. Her work has been presented in Toronto, New York and New Delhi.

Sonia de Lopez
Odissi

I am a French Canadian dance artist and for the past 5 years I have studied Odissi. In Delhi, I am currently learning under Smt. Aloka Panikar and her daughter Ambika Panikar. In Canada I trained with Saveeta Sharma and Anne-Marie Gaston. My extensive travel experience and my interest in world music and dance led me to practice several other dance forms in the past. For example, I spent four years as a member of the "Ballet Folklorico Aztlan", performing the repertoire of Mexican Folklore. I am also studying Kathak in Delhi under the guidance of Kalpana Verma.

Dali Basu
Odissi

I was born and brought up in Ottawa, Canada. I was introduced to my Indian heritage that I am so proud of, through Indian Classical dance, training from the age of eight. Every aspect of Indian Classical dance, in relation to rhythm, style, movement, grace, history, emotions, abhinaya have fascinated me. In Canada I trained under, Smt. Saveeta Sharma and Dr. Vasanthi Srinivasan, and finally in New Delhi I have received an intensive training period of eighteen months under Smt. Aloka Panikar. I am also blessed with tutelage in the Kahak style from the great guru, Pt. Birju Maharaj, his disciple Ms Kalpana Verma and his daughter Ms Mamta Maharaj.

Samidha Joglekar
Hindustani Classical

Born in New Brunswick, and brought up in Guelph Ontario, Samidha began her vocal training in Western Classical music at the age of ten. She soon developed a deep appreciation for Hindustani vocal music at the age of eleven and has continued her study of the genre in Toronto with the guidance of her Guru Shri. Narendra Datar. In 2001, she received vocal training for three months in Pune, India with Smt. Veena Sahasrabhuddhe, a renowned vocalist of the Gwalior Gharana. In 2004-2005, she was awarded the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute India Studies Program Grant to further pursue her study of vocal music in Mumbai. Samidha recently completed eight months of intense musical study with Padmashree Dr. Prabha Atre, a distinguished vocalist, reputed academician, and torchbearer of the Kirana Gharana. Samidha is a versatile singer who embraces cross-cultural experiments. She is a featured vocalist with the Canadian fusion music band Tasa. She has an Honours degree in Health Sciences from McMaster University.

Deepti Gupta
Kathak

Deepti Gupta is an exponent of Kathak, the elegant classical dance form of northern India. She is a noted performer, choreographer and dance scholar based in Toronto and artistic director of Arzoo Dance Theatre. Since the early 1990's Deepti has been at the cutting edge of contemporary South Asian choreography in Canada. Her works have been featured in the Canada Dance Festival, Danceworks Mainstage series, Tangente and the National Arts Centre Dance Series. She has received prestigious commissions to create work from the NAC, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Canada Dance Festival and the Candance Network.

Deepti's work blends ancient and tribal traditions with post-modern aesthetics and recent media technology. She works with composers, filmmakers and technology experts from diverse backgrounds to create rich multi-layered works. She has received numerous awards and scholarships including the Dora Mavor Moore award for outstanding costume design and outstanding classical dancer award from MyBindi.com.

Recent works include JUSTUJU, a solo piece based on the Persian poetry of Sufi saint Jellaluddin Rumi and a full scale ballet entitled SAVITRY based on the famous work by Indian luninary Sri Aurobindo. Deepti divides her time between Toronto and New Delhi. In Delhi she continues to train and work under the guidance of renowned gurus of Lucknow Gharana - Guru Munna Shukla and Padma Vibhushan Pt. Birju Maharaj.

Nicholas Williams
Bansuri

Born in Ottawa, Nicholas graduated from York University, where he studied world music, composition, and improvisation. Since then, he has been deeply involved in the traditional Celtic music scene in Canada, the U.S., and Europe, as a performer and recording artist . For 5 years now, Nicholas has also been a student of Hindustani classical music, making visits to Mumbai to study with bansuri master Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia. He is exploring the common ground between Celtic and Indian musical traditions and flute playing styles.

Zaheer-Abbas Janmohamed
Tabla

Zaheer-Abbas Janmohamed is a third year student at the Haskayne School of Business in the University of Calgary. He was born in Scarborough, Ontario, and his family lived in both Toronto and Bahrain during the early years of his life before settling in Calgary, Alberta. Zaheer-Abbas started learning Tabla at the age of nine from Shri Nishi Kant Bali in Calgary. His training continued until he was twelve, after which he could not find a teacher in Calgary who could take him farther into the art of Tabla. The lack of regular training, coupled with the priority given to education, diminished the role of Tabla in his life for the next six years. At the age of eighteen, with more freedom and time to dedicate to the art of Tabla, Zaheer-Abbas rediscovered his love for the instrument and applied for a Shastri Indo-Canadian Arts Fellowship. In 2005, for the first time in seven years, Zaheer-Abbas has had the chance to learn tabla and train on a regular basis. He spent four months learning the basics of the Lucknow gharana of Tabla in Delhi before moving to Bombay to pursue the Punjab style of playing. Zaheer-Abbas is currently learning under Shri Prafulla Athalye, a senior disciple of Ustad Alla Rakha Khan.