Dear friends,
Exciting news...I have been invited to New Orleans for an artist residency with the Church of Arts & Sciences organization and I will be down there for 10 days from March 11 to 21. I would love to connect with you while I am in the area, don't hesitate to reach out.
First, I will be recording at the historic Marigny Studios in front of a live audience on March 13. I will be presenting a new work, a raga tableau combining spoken word with traditional compositions, telling some tales from the lore of Hindustani music and playing original music. This concert is by invite only, please reply to this email if you would like to attend. There's very limited capacity, hopefully we're able to accommodate everyone who shows interest.
On March 20th, I will be performing at the New Marigny Theatre: a full length concert presenting new works from the residency alongside my "classics." Both concerts will be ably accompanied on tabla by Prashant Minocha. Funny coincidence, Prashant is guru-bhais (learn from the same teacher) with longtime collaborator Mir Naqibul Islam..! Another lifelong player of the esteemed Farukkhabad style of tabla playing, I'm thankful that we were able to connect and bring these concerts to another level. Tickets will be going on sale shortly for this one, I'll be sure to let you know; there will also be ample tickets available at the door.
This will be my first time in the great music city of New Orleans and I'm still pinching myself to see if it's all real...but, I've got my tickets, dates in the books and new strings on the guitar so...it's on!
In addition to my concert engagements, I will be working with the Church of Arts & Sciences to spread awareness of the instrument, Hindustani slide guitar, and Indian classical music in general in the New Orleans area. Despite having a robust music scene, there's not much Indian classical music going on. What few organizations are listed on the web, seem to be defunct. My mission is two-fold: expose musicians to the musical concepts of raga and cyclical time so that they could potentially be incorporated in other styles of music. And to offer high quality introductions to Indian classical music and the Hindustani slide guitar to the general public so as to increase awareness and appreciation and help to create more fans of this brilliant music in the United States. Through these efforts, I am working to create an infrastructure for Indian classical musicians to tour and perform throughout the country without the burdens of nonprofit sponsorship and secretive closed organizations.