Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the Grammy-winner and creator of Mohan Veena, an instrument of Hindustani classical music, will be the headlining act at a two-day festival of Indian classical music and dance to be held at the India Habitat Centre on July 27 and 28.Doyen of the classical dance of Kathak, Pt. Birju Maharaj and the sitar maestro Pt. Debu Chaudhuri will be chief guests at the opening of the festival, titled “Manthan – Churning The Ocean”.The first day of the festival will showcase a duet between Sandeep Singh on Dilruba and Mahua Mukherjee on the vocals. This will be followed by another duet between Kathak dancers Pt. Krishna Mohan Misra and Vaswati Misra. On the second day, Sangita Chatterjee will present a Kathak performance which will be followed by a Mohan Veena recital by Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. The accompanying artistes on the tabla will be Pt. Ram Kumar Misra, Sri Govind Chakravarty, Sri Ashish Sengupta and Pt. Kali Nath Misra.The festival is being organised by a West Bengal-based NGO, Kalpataru, founded by Kathak dancer Sangita Chatterjee (who is also performing on the concluding day of the festival). “Kalpataru strongly believes that culture is an integral part of the society and it has the power to positively transform the society and contribute towards its holistic growth,” said Chatterjee about her decision to host festivals of classical music and dance regularly. Kalpataru has been hosting such festivals since 2009 and channelizes donations to its festivals to projects aimed at ameliorating the weaker sections of the society. Presently, it is building a school for the children of underprivileged families in Midnapore district of West Bengal.Kalpataru organizes many festivals of classical music and dance through the year. An important one is Gunijan Baithak, which is a quarterly concert series aimed at revisiting the age old Indian tradition of enjoying ‘baithaki’ music. Manjari is another festival, organised annually, which showcases the talent of the students of the training institute run by Kalpataru.— “Manthan – Churning The Ocean,” will be hosted at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, on July 27 and 28, 7 p.m. Entry is freeFollow @ARTINFOIndia
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