An ‘epic’ musical tribute from across the Tasman

An ‘epic’ musical tribute from across the Tasman

A team of classical musicians from Auckland will soon perform a short medley of songs in Melbourne, as a classical music tribute to one of India’s greatest stories:

The Ramayana – the story of Rama.

In the oral history tradition, the performance known as ‘Geet Ramayan’ is a collection of 56 songs originally played on All India Radio, long before the introduction of television in India.

Auckland based classical singer Seema Rajapurkar has trained the team. “Indian classical music relies on epics, myths and legends for stories and these are set to various ragas or compositions. Geet Ramayan is a classic and this year, it completes 60 years since first being performed.

As performers and artists, this is our very humble tribute,” says Ms Rajapurkar.

“We hope to bring a touch of the original composed by legends Sudhir Phadke and G.D. Madgulkar through our performance, a kind of short retrospective.”

She has inculcated a love for classical music in many of her students over the past 10 years.

Auckland’s classical Indian music scene is thriving with multiple schools now offering to teach music and instruments. “This performance is an acknowledgement of our very own thriving Indian classical music scene in Auckland,” says Shriya Bhagwat-Chitale, a performer and art enthusiast.

The team includes; two musicians, three singers and one anchor; Aniket Joshi, Chaitanya Rajapurkar, Shriya Bhagwat-Chitale, Leena Naik and Aditee Naik.

“We’ve been practicing hard and hope that everyone in Melbourne enjoys the performance as much we did whilst perfecting it!” says performer Aditee Naik.

Sara Janvekar has been instrumental in forging a relationship with organisers in Melbourne (Akhil Australia Marathi Sammelan) to seize this opportunity. She conceptualized, produced and wrote the tribute to mark the musical finishing 60 years.

“It will be an honor to represent New Zealand at the AASM convention before over 1000 people,” says Ms Janvekar. “So far, we are very grateful to have received the kind support of the community in Auckland too.” The team will be performing on 26 March 2016 at the Kingston Arts Centre, Melbourne.

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