Invitation: Veena Recital by Vidhushi Shanthi Rao

Dear Members

The High Commission of India, Singapore and Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) are jointly organizing an innovative veena recital on Saturday, May 11th 2013 at the Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel, starting at 7:00 p.m.  Attached is a short description of the artiste and the recital.

The seats will be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis. There are only 200 seats (not -ticketed, purely by invitation).

Please RSVP to admin@sifas.org; Ph: 6299-5929  (extension 107: Ms Maha) by Tuesday 30^th April, 2013.

Yours sincerely

A Sachithananthan

Vice President

Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society

An Innovative Veena Recital by Vidhushi Shanthi Rao

Saturday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel

The South Indian veena is one of the most ancient musical instruments of the world. It is associated with the Indian Goddess of learning, Saraswati. The instrument itself is a beautiful work of art, capable of producing a range of sounds, and graceful embellishments. Unfortunately, the art of veena playing is a declining one with very proficient artistes active on the concert scene.

Vidhushi Shanti Rao is a highly accomplished and innovative exponent of the veena.  She has learnt under veena maestros such as the late Chitti Babu and R K Suryanarayana as well as vocal stalwarts such as the veteran R K Srikantan. She has given numerous performances all over India, including most of the highly prestigious organizers in major cities, as well as in several countries across the world. She has been decorated with many titles and awards, has released many recordings, and has trained many cohorts of veena students at her institution in Bengaluru, Veenavani Centre for music.

The program for SIFAS is planned in two parts.  The first part will be a classical Carnatic veena concert with items from the traditional repertoire accompanied by a veteran mridangam artiste, T A S Mani of Bengaluru and ghatam/kanjira by local artistes. The second part will be an innovative East-West collaboration with local musicians playing western instruments such as the bass guitar, saxophone and keyboard.

The program is planned to last 90 minutes without an intermission.

Excerpts from reviews:

Shanti Rao from Bangalore is one of the pioneers in this field as she maintains the speed, the glides 'sruti' with extraordinary care. The Hindu, Chennai

Her brevity of expression and subtle ideas had a special appeal to the initiated. Her recital greatly transcended the usual levels of a Veena concert. The New Indian Express, Chennai