A two-day music conference to celebrate the centenary of Vidushi Aparna Chakravarti concluded at ICCR today. Aparna Chakravarti (1923- 2007) was a music critic of The Statesman for many years.
A book containing her music reviews that were published in The Statesman was released on the occasion.
The event was organised by her disciples and family, and showcased the evolution of Hindustani Classical music, featuring both cultural nuances of a bygone era and 21st Century technical innovations She had a musical career which spanned several decades.
She was a leading vocalist of the Agra Gharana of Hindustani Classical Music. She had a very successful career as a performing artiste and was, in her later years, a highly respected music critic.
Her career combined musical performance, teaching and research in equal measure. She married Mukul Chakravarti, a renowned actuary and grandson of Jadav Chandra Chakravarti, whose textbook on Arithmetic was well known.
Mukul and some of their friends ran the “Jhankar Music Circle” in Kolkata for many years to promote Indian Classical Music (vocal, instrument as well as dance) and invited artistes from all parts of India to perform. Many of the present maestros had their first break at this music circle.
During the event today, a lecture-demonstration on the changing traditions of Hindustani music was presented by Pt.Vidyadhar Vyas the noted researcher, teacher and guru from Mumbai. In keeping with the traditional shloka “Geetam, vadyam, nrityam, trayang sangeet muchyate”, the festival was featured vocal and instrumental music as well as dance.
The audience had the chance to hear such rarely played instruments as the surshringar by Pt Anindya Banerjee, Rudra Veena by Shri Sayak Mitra and Surbahar by Shri Ujjalendu Chakraborty.
The vocal music of the Agra Gharana to which Aparna belonged was represented by its doyen Vidushi Bharathi Prathap from Bengaluru and Aparna’s disciples Arpita Chatterji, Kalyani Das and Rita Chakravarti.
The concluding kathak recital by young Snigdha Mishra featured traditional pieces as well as Kathak yoga and other innovations for which her late guru Pt. Chitresh Das was famous.