Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 19: Providing a much-awaited platform to the winter capital’s celebrated tradition of classical music, Indian Council for Cultural Relation’s (ICCR) Jammu Office, organized a flute recital by Rakesh Anand, at the K L Saigal Hall, Abhinav Complex, Here today.
The 10th program by ICCR under its ‘Horizon’ series, today’s solo recital by a local instrumentalist, held after a quite a gap, has been hailed by local classical musicians, who are enthused about new venue of official patronage.
Rakesh Anand, who is well known to music lovers as an accompanist, showcased the versatility of seasoned musician during an hour-long soulful flute rendition, which started with ‘Sudh Sarang’ and was followed by ‘Raag Bhageshwari’.
In the light music segment that marked the concluding part of the program, Rakesh Anand played local folk music, which impressed the audience for artiste’s creative improvisations in rhythm and pattern.
Another renowned musician Ravi Sharma accompanied him on Santoor. The wonderful fusion of flute and Santoor, supported by admirable rhythm provided by Purshotam Kumar on Tabla and Darbari Lal on Dholak left the audience ecstatic.
Born into the family of senior visual artist Dev Dass, Rakesh Anand, has to his credit many performances at International concerts and programs held at Russia, Germany and Kirgizstan.
Balwant Thakur, Regional Director, ICCR, in his welcome address threw light on mandate and activities of ICCR. He also highlighted the programs organized by ICCR’s Jammu Office since its inception on 25th May 2012. These included ten programs organized under its ‘Horizon’ series covering variety of shows and presentations. Under international exchange programs Jammu Office hosted presentations of two countries viz Zambia and Peoples Republic of Laos and visited Kazakhastan and Kirgizstan.
Prominent among those who witnessed the instrumental recital included Prof Lalit Magrotra, Praduman Singh, Sham Sajan, Suraj Singh, Jeevan Sharma, Mohan Singh and Baldev Khullar. The program was conducted by Neeraj Kant.
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