This American strikes all the right desi tones

Flutist Lyon Leifer will perform at the American Center on August 11.

It was 19th century storyteller Hans Christian Anderson who said: “When words fail, music speaks.”

When American flutist Lyon Leifer speaks you can almost hear the wise notes of music. This Fulbright Senior Research Fellow, who is in the city to perform in a bansuri (Indian flute) concert at the American Center on August 11, is a leading flutist in western classical music and has been trained in bansuri under the tutelage of the late Pt Devendra Murdeshwar. “I have always been interested in the bansuri. I started learning it in 1965, and since I knew the western flute, it wasn’t tough,” he says.

Though he holds concerts in the US, he admits his audience is “not very large and comprises mostly Indians”. According to Leifer, audience interest in classical music has gone down across geographies. “There is a need for more education and more exposure to classical music to stimulate people’s interest.”

An ardent fan of Pt Ravi Shankar, Leifer is also an admirer of shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan and LK Pandit. He has also worked with music directors and contributed music for some Bollywood flicks. “This gave me the chance to work with Lata Mangeshkar and meet Mohammed Rafi. It was fun working with Lata. She invited me to her home as well.” He has even penned a book on how to play the bansuri. “It sold around a 1,000 copies and I was happy with the response it got.”