Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 21: The day five of SaMaPa Aalap Festival witnessed mesmerizing concerts at the Historic Jio Pota Ghat, Akhnoor. The concert was specially organized to reach out to the masses of this border belt.
MLA Akhnoor Rajeev Sharma was the chief guest of the occasion.
The programme featured soulful renditions by renowned Sufi vocalist and daughter of the soil Ragini Rainu, a disciple of the great music legend Pandit Bhajan Sopori, known for her presentations which has a strong base of classical gayaki embedded with fluency, aesthetics and expressions. She presented Sufi qualam “Man Kunto Maula” and “Damadam Mast Qulandar” enchanting the audience. Ragini was joined by Aman Nath on Keyboard and electronics, Chanchal Singh on Tabla and Abid Hussain on Sarangi.
After the Sufi recital, Music Maestro Abhay Rustum Sopori took the stage and mesmerized the audience with his Santoor recital. The representative of the 300 year old exclusive Santoor family of the country, Abhay presented Raga Gawati with brief Aalap making the audience sing with his various phrases of the raga. He then presented a Tarana composition of the Great grandfather and Master musician Pt. Sansar Chand Sopori ji “Dem Tanana Ta Dare Ta Da Ne” and a Bandish of his grandfather, the legendary Pt. Shamboo Nath Sopori hailed as the father of musician in J&K, before concluding with a scintillating Santoor and Tabla Jugalbandi with Pt. Mithilesh Jha.
Earlier the concert began with performances by the artists of cultural wing of Department of Information & Public Relations, J&K.
Among others, Director Doordarshan Kendra Jammu, Anjali Sharma, Sub- Divisional Magistrate, Akhnoor, Suresh Kumar, Prof Aparna Bhajan Sopori, officers of various departments, prominent personalities of the area beside other representatives of social organizations of the town attended the concert.
In another concert at SNS Vidhya Mandir, the programme commenced with brief orchestra and choir presentations by the students of the school followed by vocal recital by Upama Roysarma, a young vocalist from Mumbai. She presented various compositions in Raga Nat Bhairav and Bairagi Bhairav and concluded her recital with a Bhajan. She was accompanied by Pt. Mithilesh Jha on Tabla, Abid Hussain on Sarangi and Bua Ditta on Harmonium, a well known artist of Jammu.
Senior Doctor and social activist Gautam Mengi was the chief guest and eminent vocalist Prof Kailash Mehra was the guest of honour.
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