Indian musicians hog limelight in Poland
2 Oct 2012 12:17 AM GMT
Whether it was Anoop Mishra, an exponent from the Benaras gharana, or Jyotsna Srikanth, a Carnatik-genre violinist, or Raza Khan, a rustic Punjabi Sufi singer from Amritsar, Indian musicians hogged the limelight during the just-concluded 8th Warsaw Cross-Culture Festival here. All three Indian musicians won the hearts of Warsawians with their talent.
Mishra got ample opportunity to showcase his mastery of light classical music. Rarely do people in Poland get a chance to appreciate the intricate feelings of old ragas. Most of the artists who come from India are generally instrumentalists. Jyotsna Srikanth followed that tradition with her superb control over this western instrument, which now has become an essential part of Carnatik music.
However, the maximum applause was reserved for Raza Khan for his magnificent rendering of Sufi qawwalis. For many people it was a novel experience and they seemed to be in a trance.
‘In my interaction of 30 years with Indian music, I never had such a great experience which I felt with Raza Khan’s style of singing. Raza Khan and his group will achieve great heights in the short term. This artist has a very rich voice, which is fabulously suitable for Sufi qawwalis. We are lucky that we have found him and invited him for this festival, which is his first international experience,’ Festival Director Maria Pomianowska said.
Pomianowska love for Indian music started in the early 1980s when she went to India to learn  to play the sarangi from Pandit Ramanarayan and Ustad Sabri Khan. It is because of her dedication to Indian music that in the past she had invited flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the inventor of the Mohan veena, to the Warsaw Cross-Culture Festival.
The Warsaw Cross-Culture Festival has become an important landmark in the history of music festivals in Eastern Europe.
Mishra got ample opportunity to showcase his mastery of light classical music. Rarely do people in Poland get a chance to appreciate the intricate feelings of old ragas. Most of the artists who come from India are generally instrumentalists. Jyotsna Srikanth followed that tradition with her superb control over this western instrument, which now has become an essential part of Carnatik music.
However, the maximum applause was reserved for Raza Khan for his magnificent rendering of Sufi qawwalis. For many people it was a novel experience and they seemed to be in a trance.
‘In my interaction of 30 years with Indian music, I never had such a great experience which I felt with Raza Khan’s style of singing. Raza Khan and his group will achieve great heights in the short term. This artist has a very rich voice, which is fabulously suitable for Sufi qawwalis. We are lucky that we have found him and invited him for this festival, which is his first international experience,’ Festival Director Maria Pomianowska said.
Pomianowska love for Indian music started in the early 1980s when she went to India to learn  to play the sarangi from Pandit Ramanarayan and Ustad Sabri Khan. It is because of her dedication to Indian music that in the past she had invited flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the inventor of the Mohan veena, to the Warsaw Cross-Culture Festival.
The Warsaw Cross-Culture Festival has become an important landmark in the history of music festivals in Eastern Europe.
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