Curtain rises on much-talked-about event of the year today
The curtain will rise on the sixth edition of the biggest classical music festival in the world titled ‘Bengal Classical Music Festival 2017’ (BCMF) today evening. The five-day mega event, organised by Bengal Foundation, is all set to take place in the Abahani Field of the capital’s Dhanmondi area. Presented by Square and supported by BRAC Bank, this year’s BCMF has been dedicated to Professor Dr Anisuzzaman.
The acclaimed musical festival has turned a much-talked about event of the year as it was cancelled earlier on account of non-availability of venue, and returned later with the announcement of a new venue, the Abahani Field.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith will be present as chief guest in the inaugural ceremony, while Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor, High Commissioner of India in Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Member of the Parliament Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Abahani Limited Chairman Salman F Rahman, Square Group Director Anjan Chowdhury will attend the event as special guests.
Beginning at 7 o’clock in the evening, the festival will be continued till 5am every day. The entry gate will be closed at 12am, while one cannot make a re-entry to the venue after coming out once.
The five-day mega event will open with the performance of internationally acclaimed violinist from India, Dr L Subramaniam and Astana Symphony Philharmonic Orchestra, considered to be one of the most notable orchestras of Kazakhstan. The opening night programme will conclude with the performance of Sitar by Purbayan Chatterjee. The artiste is a renowned sitar maestro from India. Besides, other performers of the night include—Sarod by Rajrupa Chowdhury, Khayal by Vidushi Padma Talwalkar, Sitar by Firoz Khan, Khayal by Supriya Das, Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay from Bangladesh and Flute by Rakesh Chaurasia.
BCMF has already grabbed the attention across the globe for bringing a huge number of internationally-famed music artistes on a single platform. To attend the festival, the internationally-reputed artistes who are coming to Dhaka this year —Padma Vibhushan Pandit Jasraj (Khayal), Grammy winning (1993) Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Mohan Veena), Grammy-nominated Vidushi Kala Ramnath (Violin), first Grammy winner from South-Asia Vidwan Vikku Vinayakram (Ghatam & Kanjeera), eminent dance artiste Vidushi Sujata Mohapatra (Odissi), Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee (Sitar), Pandit Kaivalyakumar (Khayal), Saskia Rao de-Haas (Cello), Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company (Kathak), Vidushi Padma Talwalkar (Khayal), Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (Sarod), Dr Mysore Manjunath (Violin), Pandit Ronu Majumdar (Flute), Pandit Kushal Das (Sitar), Pandit Debojyoti Bose (Sarod), Rakesh Chaurasia (Flute), Purbayan Chatterjee (Sitar), Rajrupa Chowdhury (Sarod), Abir Hossain (Sarod), Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (Santoor), Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute), Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty (Khayal), Ustad Rashid Khan (Khayal), Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar (Khayal) and Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan (Sitar).
performances
on Day 1
• Dr L Subramaniam & the Astana Symphony Philharmonic Orchestra
• Sarod by Rajrupa Chowdhury
• Khayal by Vidushi Padma Talwalkar
• Sitar by Firoz Khan
• Khayal by Supriya Das, Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay
• Flute by Rakesh Chaurasia
• Sitar by Purbayan Chatterjee