Mystical India

June 16, 7 p.m.
Tallinn, Old Town Studio

June 17, 7 p.m.
Tartu, Theatre "Vanemuine" Small House

June 19, 9 p.m.
Pärnu Concert Hall

Concert Agency Festivitas Artium and Indian Cultural Association of Estonia present:

Indian music performed by Indian masters:

Pandit Amar Nath - bansuri
Satyanarayan Rao Adla - tanbura
Paras Nath - bansuri
Anup Ghosh - tabla

Pandit Amar Nath
Born in the family of traditional flute players of Banaras in 1954, Pt. Amar Nath took to the flute from an early childhood. He started receiving his training in this most difficult of wind instruments from the age of nine under the guidance of his farther Pt. Shiv Nath Prasad (himself a well known master) and his uncle Pt. Anant Lal (a renownwed shehnai player).

Pt. Amar Nath has inherited his art from his own family tradition (Banaras Gharana) that is nearly four centuries old and has produced some of the great flutists of India.

Pt. Amar Nath has participated many times in almost all of the famous music conferences in India (ICCR´s Sangeet Natak Academy, Bharat Cultural Integration Committee, Sahitya Kala Parishad to name but a few) and has won rich acclaim from critics of Indian classical music. He has also performed many times in National Program of Doordarshan Kendra and Akashawari. He holds the position of senior artist in the National Orchestra of AIR and has, for the last few years, also served as its conductor. Pt. Amar Nath follows the tradition of the legendary Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Pannalal Ghosh and Pt. Vishwas, who have all carefully nurtured the Orchestra.

Being a widely acclaimed artist in India, Pt. Amar Nath has travelled also in many Western countries and given numerous successful recitals in Holland, Western China, Germany, England, Switzerland, the USA, Japan, Russia, Korea, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, Taipei etc. His CDs have also been published in the US, where they made a great impact on the listeners. One of his most memorable performances abroad was given during the Festival "50 years of Indian Independence" held in Kazakhstan under the auspices of the ICCR.

Exotic Indian Dances
Pille Roosi and dance studio "Amrita"

Pille Roosi
Liina Karoliise Ludvig
Helen Gersman
Kati Pruel
Vivian Schkiperov

This year, the dance studio Amrita celebrates its 20th anniversary. It started in September 1984 with Irina Yankevitch as the first teacher. The initially tiny group has since grown into a big studio. Over the years, several hundred dance lovers have found their way to the beautiful but complex Indian classical dance. Some of them have become skilled performers, though most have practised it for personal enjoyment. In the studio´s initial years, in addition to bharatanatyam also the kathak style and folk dance were practised, but now, in the best of traditions, the studio performs bharatanatyam dances that have been learned from the great teachers of India. Amrita has had good contacts first with with the dancers from Russia, then from Europe and recently from India. The studio has had the honour of welcoming in Estonia a number of renowned performers and teachers and has brought to the stage large dance projects such as "Dancing an Indian dance", "Nectar Drinker", "Dances from Thanjavur", "Govinda lila kathamrita". Dancers from the studio participated in the "Orient" festival in 1992, 1995 as well as 2001. The studio has developed a tradition of organising so-called student concerts that enable beginners to perform before their friends and relatives.

Musical bridge between Estonia and India
Raho Langsepp and FA Schola musicians

The Centre of Early and Oriental Music Festivitas Artium Schola, founded in collaboration between the University of Tartu and Festivitas Artium in January 2000, is a natural follow-up to the early music research and study in Tartu, and helps to further the work of the ensemble Via Sonora and the tradition of the Tartu Early Music Festival.

As a Greek loan word in Latin, schola originally denoted spending time in intelligent conversation. Later the familiar contemporary meanings of 'teaching' and 'learnedness' were conflated with it. Festivitas Artium Schola accommodates both the old and the new meaning - in addition to study events, the centre organises many concert projects in which the stage belongs, on an equal footing, to students of music as well as established professionals from both Estonia and abroad.

The early music consort FA Schola, working under the auspices of the University of Tartu, focuses primarily on the Oriental and European medieval music. Members of the consort are also active in teaching a variety of instruments. As a centre of study, FA Schola's purpose lies in researching, comparing and propagating through music the traditional European and Oriental medieval cultures.