Sankat Mochan music fest celebrates its centenary year

VARANASI: A galaxy of artistes will be in holy city for the seven-day centenary year celebrations of Sankat Mochan music festival commencing on the campus of Sankat Mochan Temple from Monday. Around 125 classical music artistes along with their teams will be giving 58 scintillating performances during this traditional musical festival.
Apart from legendary classical artistes, Bollywood singers including Sonu Nigam and Javed Ali would also be evident at the dias of this annual fest.
Mahant Sankat Mochan temple Prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra said that the music festival was started in 1923 and as the time passed the participation of artistes increased in it. In its centenary year the festival will start from Monday and will continue till April 16.
As per the itinerary of the music fest, it will commence with the shehnai recital by Bhaskar Nath of Delhi on Monday evening. The inaugural evening will witness a total of nine performances by 21 artistes including Pt Nagraj Hawaldar (vocal) of Bengaluru, Ustad Moinuddin Khan (Sarangi), Ustad Akram Khan (Tabla), Jasvir Jassi (vocal) of Punjab, Pt Ulhas Kasalkar (vocal) of Pune and Abhishek Mishra-Shivan Mishra (Sitar).
On the second evening on Tuesday the festival will start with performances of Pt Shivmanu (drums) and Pt U Rajesh (mandolin) of Chennai followed by eight more performances by 16 artistes including Pt Shashank Subramanian (flute) Chennai, Ustad Tala Aziz (vocal) Mmbai and Pt Tarun Bhattacharya (Santoor) of Kolkata.
Third evening events on Wednesday will start with Odissi dance performance by Sanchita Bhatttacharya and her team from Kolkata followed by Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatta (Mohan Veena) Jaipur, Ustad Rashid Khan (vocal) Kolkata, Pt Abhay Rustam Sopori (Santoor) Delhi and Rahul-Rohit Mishra (vocal) of Varanasi who will enthral the music lovers.
On the fourth evening on April 13 the series of events will commence with Bharatnatyam dance by Rama Viadyanathan of Delhi followed by performances by Thakur Chakrapani Singh (Guitar) New York, Shakir Khan (Sitar) Pune, Indrayudh Majumdar (Sarod) Kolkata and Pt Ronu Majumdar (flute) of Mumbai.
In the star studded fifth night on April 14 music lovers will witness the performances of Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia (flute) Mumbai, Pt Rajendra Gangani (Kathak) Delhi, Pt Venkatesh Kumar (vocal) Dharwad, Pt Neeladri Kumar (Sitar) Mumbai and Anup Jalota (Bhajan) Mumbai,
On April 15 the events will commence with Varanasi’s Vyomesh Shukla directed play ‘Ram ki Shakti Puja’ followed by performances of Dr N Rajam (violin) Mumbai, Malini Awasthi (vocal) Lucknow, Ustad Shahid Parveej Khan (Sitar), Pune, Javed Ali (vocal) Mumbai and Dr Vella Venkateshwar Rao (Mridangam) of Hyderabad.
The concluding evening of the festival will begin with the performance of Pt Ratokant Mohapatra (Odissi) and his team from Bhubaneshwar. It will be followed by performances of Dr Rajeshwar Acharya (vocal) Varanasi, Pt Vishwanath (vocal) delhi, Dr L Subramaniam (violin) Bengaluru, Sonu Nigam (vocal) Mumbai, and Kankana Banarjee (vocal) Mumbai. The music fest will conclude with the vocal performance by Pt Sajan Mishra of Delhi.