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Ravindra Bharati to ring once again with music

Uttar Dakshin, the first post Covid live concert on Feb 27

Hyderabad: After being silent for nearly a year, the Ravindra Bharati auditorium, the city's home for arts and culture for decades, will return to life with its first live concert.

On February 27, the silence that enveloped Ravindra Bharati will be broken when the auditorium will host Uttar Dakshin, a musical jugalbandi concert of Hindustani and Carnatic music. Taking the stage will be Jayateerth Mevundi, Hindustani vocalist, and Abhishek Raghuram, Carnatic vocalist. The concert is dedicated to Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.

The concert is being planned at a time when the world is confronted with challenges arising from the Coronavirus pandemic.

“How can we socially distance at a concert? How can artists perform if the audience were to stay at home? These were the questions the music industry had to answer to survive the global pandemic. We took the risk of being the first to organize a concert,” said V. Narahari of Vivit Art Entertainment.

“The troubled souls need a mehfil or a kacheri or live performances where a lot of energy, emotional and cultural exchange occurs,” Narahari, a tabla exponent, said.

“Somebody had to bell the cat. We plunged into it. If we succeed, we end up doing good both to music lovers and performers, the fraternity. If we don’t succeed, we will still have the satisfaction of having tried to revive the good old tradition of live programmes,” Narahari said.

No amount of technology can replace the experience of being part of a real concert, he said.

“In what is very similar to Covid symptoms that attack the breathing pattern, our musicians lost connections with the lifeline that the audience provides them with, the exchange of energy,” he said. The pandemic has made them realize that the virtual world was no place to live in.

The Coronavirus has a vaccine, but there is no single cure to the stress that people have been experiencing. “Listening to calming music would probably help people overcome such issues,” according to Mohan Hemmadi, the well-known arts and cultural ambassador from the city.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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