Professor Pradeep Ratnayake enchanted the audience with beautiful rendition of Raag Malkauns on 15th August, 2020 in the World Sitar Festival.
Pradeep Ratnayake is a Professor of Music and Head of the Department of Music and Creative Technology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. He is a composer, researcher into new genres of music and an international award-winning film music director – winning the Best Music Director Award in the World Buddhist Film Festival organized by the United Nations in 2014 for the film Siddhartha Gautama which won the Best Film Award at the New Delhi International Film Festival in 2013. His Bachelors and Masters Degree in Music was done at Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, India, on an ICCR scholarship, where he was very fortunate to learn from Professor Indranil Bhattacharaya, the last disciple of Ustad Allauddin Khan and son of Pt. Timir Baran Bhattacharya.
In the pursuit of peace Swaranjali, in association with Pracheen Kala Kendra, Navras School of Performing Arts, Deshe-Bideshe TV, Next Huddle and Gunijankhana is organising World Sitar Festival on 15th August, 2020. Sitarists from all parts of the world are going to perform in this cloud concert. This will be one of the rarest occasion when audience will experience the convergence of all Gharanas of Sitar. There will be a section of rare archival recordings of Sitar starting from the first recording of the sound of Sitar of 1904.
The first of its kind initiative in the history of music when artists from all over the globe join their hands on the strings of the melodious and fantabulous instrument Sitar. This World Sitar Festival has everything about Sitar. Apart from 32 live performances of 27 Raags, it has the history of Sitar, rare archival recordings of Sitar from the gone by era including the first recorded sound of Sitar.
Stories, anecdotes and history of Sitar fills the grand stage of World Sitar Festival.
Artists of the concert-
Alif Laila, Amie Maciszewski, Anupama Bhagwat, Ashim Chowdhury, Ayan Sengupta, Debajit Chakraborty, Ebadul Huq Shaikat, Eti Bartholomew, Guillermo Rodriguez , Harashankar Bhattacherjee, Hidayat Khan, Huzoor Hasnain Khan, Indrajit Banerjee, Juan M Tavella, Kalyan Majumdar, Manoj & Mormukut Kedia, Markus Schmidt, Mita Nag, Parimal M Sadaphal, Pradeep Ratnayake, Ramprapanna Bhattacharya, Roopa Panesar, Sahana Banerjee, Saleem Khan Punchhwale, Saswatti Saha, Shakir Khan, Shunichi Sawda, Soumitra Lahiri, Subrato De, Supriya Shah, Sushanto Chowdhury, Swarup Bose and Turab Ali Khan.
These artist are joining from Bangladesh| England| Germany| India| Japan| Pakistan| Scotlant| Singapore| Spain| Sri Lanka| United States of America
The Raags that are going to feature during the event are as followings:
Bilashkhani Todi| Nat Bhairav| Alhaiya Bilawal| Miyan Ki Todi| Gaoti| Goud Sarang| Shuddha Sarang| Madhuvanti| Puriya Dhaneshree| Kedar| Sundar Rais Kalyan| Desh| Mishra Pilu| Yaman Kalyan| Behag| Kamod| Rageshri| Jaijaiwanti| Miyan Ki Malhar| Jhinjhoti| Kirwani| Megh| Hemant| Charukauns| Nur Gara| Malkaus| Darbari Kanada|
The signature tune of the world sitar festival was composed by Pt. Subrato De.
Archives used in this film are from the Gramophone Concert Records & His Master’s Voice Records (Gramophone Company Ltd.,) Hindusthan Record (Hindusthan Musical Products and Varieties Syndicate ltd.), Odeon Records (International Talking Machine Co.m.b.H. Berlin), Megaphone Record (Megapgone Company), Pioneer Record (Pioneer Records and Musical Varieties Ltd.) and Senola Records (N. B. Sen and Bros.). Using the archives in the film are only for the academic purpose.
Concept of the World Sitar Festival- Pt. Subrato De, Swaranjali
Research & Curation of the concert- Rashmita Jha and Akhilesh Jha
A film by Akhilesh Jha.
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