This year the Rajasthan International Folk Festival will feature
Shubha Mudgal’s interpretation of the royal maand |
COME
October, the historic Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur will come alive
to the sounds of folk and classical music again, during the
four-day Rajasthan International Folk Festival beginning on
October 10.
This is the
second edition of the festival, which has been billed as one of
the top five music festivals in the world by British newspaper The
Guardian.
Mick Jagger,
the lead vocalist of the popular pop-rock band Rolling Stones,
attended the festival in 2007.
The festival
will bring the best of folk and traditional performers from
across the state and some leading international musicians to
celebrate the universal language of music.
"It has
always been a dream for me to see the whole of Mehrangarh Fort
come alive with music at the time of Sharad Poornima,"
said Gaj Singh, the scion of the Jodhpur royal family and the
current owner of the fort.
This year, a
seven-member Roma (Gypsy) band from Hungary, Porno Graszt,
billed by music magazines across the world as the "source
of gypsy music", will showcase their music at the festival.
The European gypsies trace their roots to Rajasthan.
Organised by
the Mehrangarh Museum Trust and Jaipur Virasat Foundation, the
festival is supported by the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and the Taj group of hotels.
"Last
year, I was overwhelmed to see people from so many different
countries and nationally and internationally acclaimed musicians
enjoying themselves and interacting freely with our very special
folk musicians," Gaj Singh said.
The festival is
expected to open with two vocal concerts in the indigenous maand,
local musical tradition by sisters Perveen and Rehana Mirza, who
will sing kotha (court) songs. It will be followed by
Shubha Mudgal’s interpretation of the royal maand.
It will also
feature Sultan Khan, known as the king of Rajasthan’s
classical sarangi music, whose repertoire draws from classical,
folk and contemporary influences. He will perform a duet with
Lakha Khan Manganiar, another accomplished sarangi player.
A soiree at the
Club Mehran will see Phoebe Legre of the USA and Reuben
Mashangwa of Manipur blend their genres in an unusual folk blues
concert combining jazz, classical, rock and native North
American folk with tribal music from Manipur.
The club will
also host concerts by composer and beat boxer Jason Singh and
his band, the Saffires, French guitarist Titi Robin and a fusion
night of Rajasthani folk and jazz music featuring the Yuri
Honing Trio from The Netherlands and local musicians.
"Besides,
there will be interactive morning sessions for schoolchildren
and the local people where performers and acrobats from the
villages will acquaint them with lesser known artistic
traditions like storytelling through phad, a pictorial,
scroll-based musical storytelling format and alternate reading
of folk stories," Divya Bhatia, director of the festival,
said.
The tickets
will be priced at Rs.750 per day. But bulk of the revenue would
come from corporate sponsorships and the foreign performers
would raise their own resources.
Members of the
Picasso family from Italy and the Sachs family of Goldman Sachs
fame will attend the festival. Bhatia said the Rajasthan
International Folk Festival is an offshoot of the Jaipur Virasat
Foundation Folk Festival, which began as a platform to showcase
the neglected traditional music, arts and crafts of the state
eight years ago. Prince Charles of Britain is one of the patrons
of the Virasat Foundation.
"In fact, we are planning
to make this an international gypsy festival, a kind of
homecoming festival, featuring gypsy performers from around the
world in 2010," she added. — IANS
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