Curtain rises on ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival’ Nov 24
The wait is almost over, only a few more days to go to witness the curtain rising on the 5th edition of the world’s biggest classical music event titled ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival (BCMF) 2016’. The five-day festival will kick off on November 24 at the same previous venue, Bangladesh Army Stadium in the capital. This year’s festival has been dedicated to ambidexter poet-writer Syed Shamsul Haq who passed away recently. The festival will take place every day from 7pm to 5am until November 28.
To make a formal announcement of BCMF, Bengal Foundation, the organiser of the mega festival, arranged a press conference at The Westin Dhaka in the capital yesterday. Bengal Foundation Chairman Abul Khair, Bengal Foundation Director General Luva Nahid Choudhury, MD and CEO of Square Toiletries Ltd and Maasranga TV Anjan Chowdhury, Advisor to Bengal Foundation Abdul Momen and Head of Communication, BRAC Bank Zara Mahbub were present at the event and spoke on the occasion.
Bengal Foundation Chairman Abul Khair said in his speech, “We believe in the heart and soul that music is the most powerful form to purify a person. If we practice music and all other forms of art, a silent revolution will be created inside of us and we all will be purified. We strongly believe a purified person never crosses limits. When someone can cleanse oneself, they can influence their family members, can influence their children to follow the right path. Thinking of all these various reasons, we do these (BCMF) types of works.”
Like the previous years, the festival is open to all and interested music aficionados can register online that is likely to start from the first week of November. The entry pass to the event can be collected free of cost. The music lovers, those who have no internet facilities, they, for a limited period, will get opportunity to register at Bengal Foundation in Dhanmondi and Bengal Centre at Airport Road in the Khilkheet area. The detail information will be available soon about online and off-line registration, Luva Nahid Choudhury informed at the press conference.
As well, for the first time, the festival will be aired live on YouTube besides telecasting on Maasranga TV. A website centring the mega festival has also been launched at yesterday’s press meet.
Like past years, classical music and other major genres of performances will be presented during the five-day festival. A total of 165 Bangladeshi artistes will enthral audiences with their performance and playing different types of music instruments. Renowned dance exponent Sharmila Banerjee, dance artiste Munmun Ahmed and eminent classical singer Priyanka Gope, among others, are the major artistes from Bangladesh who will perform in the forthcoming festival.
On the other hand, Girija Devi, an iconic Indian classical vocalist of the Seniya and Banaras Gharana, will be a special attraction at the festival this year. Besides, veteran Indian sarode artiste Aashish Khan along with renowned tabla artiste from India Bickram Ghosh, noted Indian vocal artistes Ashwini Bhide and Sanjeev Abhyankar, internationally-acclaimed violinist Dr L Subramaniam from India and illustrious exponent of the Odissi tradition Madhavi Mudgal will perform at the festival.
Moreover, like previous years, this year’s festival includes the captivating performance of internationally-acclaimed exponent of the bansuri Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and his son Rahul Sharma, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Ustad Rashid Khan, North-Indian solo sitar and surbahar artiste Kushal Das, among others.
Yesterday’s press conference also revealed that Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith along with Cultural Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsha Bardhan Shringla, Managing Director of Square Toiletries Ltd Anjan Chowdhury, Managing Director of BRAC Bank Selim R F Hossain, will inaugurate the festival. Bengal Foundation Chairman Abul Khair will deliver the welcome speech at the opening ceremony.
Also informed at the press conference, the security will be tightened centring the five-day festival. The audiences, who will be coming to the festival, cannot enter the venue with any type of bag. For the sake of security, no entry will be allowed after 1am. Moreover, there will be no parking facilities for the private cars.
Square presents ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival 2016’—the mega event is supported by BRAC Bank, while Maasranga TV as broadcast partner, Ice Business Times as media partner, Radisson Hotel Dhaka as hospitality partner, Square Hospital as medical partner and Blue Communications as event partner.