Poetry of the Saints and Sages of India
sung by
Dr. Krishnakant Shukla
on tour from Varanasi, India
Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 4PM- 6PM
Venue: HCS Youth Center
With: Dr. Vishnu Mathur (Tabla)
While teaching Physics and Astronomy as an assistant professor in upstate New York, Dr. Shukla decided to quit academics and follow his heart and soul deep into the fathomless waters of Indian Classical Music. Having studied with great maestros like Srimati Laxmi Shankar, Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan, and Dr. Tapan Bhattacharya, he returned to India in 1994 to explore the roots of Indian Classical Music in the great living oral folk traditions. His musical search led him into remote villages in the Himalayan foothills, as well as far flung and difficult to reach dwellings in the central plains. He has been particularly influenced by the songs of Kabir,Gorakhnath, and other nirguna bhakti poet-saints—songs that have been sung as part of a living oral tradition that is over six hundred years old. Dr. Shukla’s repertoire includes compositions of Tyagaraja, Tulsidas, Surdas, Meera, Tukaram, Purandardas and other poet-saints of India, as well as the musical compositions of Sufi saints. He has also been researching, recording and performing the folk songs of rural northern India, which,according to him, is an art form of unparalleled beauty which is fast becoming extinct.
For information please call:
Asha Divan: 632-2362
Arvind Bhargava: 689-6294
Hema Bhakoo: 689-6905