I'm pleased to share this video with you. This is a full performance of the evening raag Yaman from our concert at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi, India from just about 1 year ago February 12 2023.

You will hear my fumbling Hindi introduction (with translation in the video description below the video) followed by an alaap and then compositions in jhaptaal (a cycle of 10 beats), teental (16 beats) and a sawaal-javaab (question - answer) section at the finale where all three of us trade phrases and bring the piece to its climax.

Man, this concert was a lot of work to put together and, now with enough time and distance passed, I am able to appreciate more fully what we accomplished and be happy to share it with you. This was my first ever self-produced concert in Delhi, capital city of India, and carried special significance as the India Habitat Centre is where I have watched so many masterful performances over the years. It's been a goal of mine to be considered a worthy enough artist to be booked there; where classical musicians who have trained since their early childhood grace the stage as a norm. Initially, this concert was booked for 2020 but was cancelled.

Amit, Gaurav and I were able to rehearse once all together, in a flat I rented on AirBnB in Darya Ganj, before the concert. Amit and I have been playing together for years and Gaurav and I have also performed together in the past (back at ICCR Delhi in the Aadhyan Festival), so we clicked pretty well. Amit was able to hang with me some of the days leading up to the concert and we practiced together in the flat as much as my energy allowed, I was still recovering from a cold I caught while traveling to Surat earlier. 

This was the small stage of IHC (known as Amaltas Hall or "The Theatre") and our team was responsible for the production of the event entirely. The venue provided the stage, sound, sound person and an usher. Thanks to my friend Puraskar Nirwan, we roped in Indian indie music mogul Manu Matthew (founder of House Concerts India) to introduce us. He happened to be at the venue next door attending to a photo shoot. Vidhi helped me to communicate with a flower vendor nearby and they delivered the giant garlands of marigolds you see encircling the stage. It was thrilling to be getting calls leading up to the event, saying that all the reserved passes were gone and asking if I thought there would be space if they came anyway. There was plenty of space, I'm not sure where all those passes went, but we still had a decent turnout of about 40 people.

Let me know how you enjoyed the concert in the comments or you can reply to this email, your feedback is always a big highlight to my day.

The entire concert, start to finish, is available as a high fidelity download via the Joel Veena Patronage Hub! Subscribers have already had the album added to their library.