Festival of Indian Music in Australia, organised by CHARINDAA will run from Aug 18-20 in Sydney and from Aug 24-27 in Melbourne.
Shivangi Ambani-Gandhi
SYDNEY: Over two weekends in August, Sydney and Melbourne will get a taste of the diversity of Indian music — from Indian-Pop-Jazz fusion to Ghazals, Carnatic Music and Carnatic-Hindustani Jugalbandi.
The Festival of Indian Music in Australia, 2006 (FIMA) organised by CHARINDAA (Charities through Indian Arts in Australia) will run from August 18-20 in Sydney and from August 24-27 in Melbourne at various venues.
The festival features the contemporary music duo Colonial Cousins, and classical Carnatic vocalist Sanjay Subrahmanyan. The festival also includes a classical Carnatic instrumental duet concert by Dr N Ramani (flute) and Dr N Rajam (violin) . Hariharan, of the Colonial Cousins, will also present a Ghazal show.
CHARINDAA (‘to be free’, in Hindi) is a not-for-profit institution in Melbourne committed to promoting Indian arts in Australia. “In Hariharan, we have a Mumbai resident of South Indian descent who speaks and sings in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu with remarkable aplomb,” says Mohan Krishnamoorthy, director of CHARINDAA. “He is also equally comfortable with fusion music, classical Carnatic and Hindustani, ghazals and film songs. His versatility will appeal to a wide cross-section of Indians,” he adds.
The festival has been packaged to attract a pan-Indian and Australian audience by presenting a range of Indian music. “The Colonial Cousins’ music is universal. Their compositions are also predominantly in English. So, we expect that India-aware ‘mainstream’ Australians would also take to them,” explains Krishnamoorthy.
Set up by Krishnamoorthy and AV Mohan, CHARINDAA also organised the AR Rahman tour of Australia in September, 2005 which attracted nearly 23,000 patrons in the two cities. “The show set the record in both Melbourne and Sydney for the number of people that attended a ticketed Indian arts event. It was also the first significant step CHARINDAA took towards realising its vision of raising $1 million in 10 years to support charities in Australia and elsewhere.” The Rahman tour raised $120,000 for Udayan, a charity based in Kolkatta, which cares for over 300 children suffering from leprosy.
This year’s festival which is expected to draw in 8000 patrons will raise funds for The East West Overseas Aid Foundation which runs the Uluru Health Care Centre, a primary health care service for more than 5,000 rural villagers around Kadapakkam in South India, and The Uluru Children’s Home near Chennai. Another beneficiary is the Fred Hollows Foundation which seeks to eradicate avoidable blindness in developing countries and to improve the health outcomes of Indigenous Australians.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}