Building bridges

BENGALURU: The Bengaluru International Arts Festival will be back this month and just like its previous editions, the upcoming 12th one too aims to celebrate harmony through art and will bring in internationally acclaimed artistes to the city. “The motto has always been to build bridges across communities, societies, states, countries and the world at large,” says Dr Veena Murthy Vijay, the director of the festival. She adds that every year, the festival sees artistes from five to six countries across Europe, USA, Asia and African countries taking part at the festival.

The upcoming one will showcase artistes from USA. This year’s festival, in particular, focuses on the conservation of water, clean Bengaluru and going green in Bengaluru.To bring in more awareness, the festival will host a crossover concert with Planet Symphony Orchestra for Environment, which will feature N Ravikiran Chitraveena, Dr Suma Sudhindra on veena, George Brooks from USA on saxophone, Akkarai Subhalakshmi on violin, Tiruvaruru Vaidyanathan on mrudanga and Arun Kumar on drums. “The proceeds from this concert will go towards planting trees and reviving the water resources of a village,” says Vijay, adding that they are yet to finalise the village.

Another aim of the festival this year was to bring in a bigger number of youngsters in the audience. And in order to do that, the edition will also feature a piano performance by 12-year-old Lydian Nadaswaram, a ‘young prodigy’ from Chennai. “Art has been sustained for many years now and we hope to continue doing that through these programmes,” adds Vijay.

Agreed Dr Suma Sudhindra, director of the festival, who says, “Harmony through arts has been our objective and we hope to continue to carry this message across, especially in these turbulent times.”

The Bengaluru International Arts Festival 2019 will take place on September 28 and 29 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.