Indian Classical Music in Australia and especially in Melbourne

Concerts – Local Organisations and Radio Shows – Links to other Sites

This is my attempt to highlight concerts and other activities in Victoria relating to Indian classical music, a vibrant, diverse field of music I have been enjoying immensely these last few years.  I am not an expert!  We are lucky in Melbourne to have a number of resident artists and people and organisations who put on concerts, including with artists from India.  Please let me know of anything which should be added to this site, or of any suggestion for improvements.  Please note that I do not put on concerts myself.  

Robin Whittle  rw@firstpr.com.au  14 September 2006
Back to the main First Principles web site.

Upcoming Concerts

Generally, see below for the bi-monthly Sangeet Sandhyas (musical evenings) by the Sharda Kala Kendra Centre for Indian Arts and Culture.  Concerts may also be listed in the Cultural Events section of http://www.helloindia.com.au .

Friday 15th September, 8-10 pm  Venue: Coburg Library Hall Cnr.Victoria St & Louisa St, Coburg.(Melway 29 G1) Entry is free.  Mehfil Night will present a 'Duet night-re:mix', both old and new. Singers are Amitabh, Sarat, Priya and Barbara. A very talented Ranjit Singh on key board, Arvin on tabla, Paul on guitar along with other talented musicians. Contact: Dr.Saratchandran 9366 5444

Sunday 17th September  The Rhythm Of Life TIHAI, Radhey Shyam Gupta with Girish Makwana on Tabla at Darebin Music feast. 5 pm
Venue: 251 Northcote Uniting Church, High St. Northcote Contact: Girish Makwana - 9482 4838 / 0411 018 209

Saturday 30th September http://www.boite.asn.au/event_detail.asp?event_id=892  Radhey Shyam Gupta, Sitar and Hemanth Kumar, Tabla. Starts at 8:00 pm Boite World Music Cafe, 1 Mark St. North Fitzroy 3068 $15 full, $10 concession, $5 children.   I saw these musicians perform at the same venue in 2003 and it was fabulous.

Saturday, 7th October 2006.  Sangeet Sandhya - Musical Evening.   http://www.sharda.org  8.00 pm Sharp till 12.30 midnight.
Venue: Waverley Meadows Primary School, 11 Columbia Drive, Wheelers Hill, Melway Ref: 71 G 11.  Organised every alternate first saturday of the month, it is a non-commercial music program in an informal environment.

This Sangeet Sandhya is devouted to the memory of great Shehnai player Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismilla Khan ji who passed away recently. Dr Reis Flora, past head of department of music, Monash University will perform Shehnai. Also Salil Sharma will play Flute and Monica Koerner will play Fltue with Radhey Gupta on Sitar.  Entry is free.



Past Concerts

Here is material relating to some previous concerts.

Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and his sons Amaan and Ayaan toured Australia and New Zealand in March 2003 with the Nataraj Cultural Centre: http://www.nataraj.org.au .  Amjad Ali Khan's web site is: http://www.sarod.com .

Amjad Ali Khan was interviewed on ABC Radio National's Music Show http://www.abc.net.au/rn/music/mshow/  on 1 March: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/music/mshow/s791188.htm .  The audio is here, as 20 minute 128kbps mono MP3:  Amjad-Ali-Kahn-ABC-RN-Music-Show.mp3 This is a marvellous interview with musical demonstrations of the instrument and of some or the distinctive and wonderful aspects of Indian Classical Music.

There is a page here which is a record of the 1999 Australian tour of:
Anuradha Pal(tabla) and Khalil Gudaz(sitar)

. 

The page has information on the artists, links to further information, sound samples and a 16 minute interview on ABC Radio National.  Anuradha Pal has her own website:  http://www.anuradhapal.com/.

 

Local Organisations and Radio Shows

Sharda Kala Kendra Centre for Indian Arts and Culture http://www.sharda.org puts on musical and cultural events and offers lessons for a variety of instruments, for dance and for Indian culture.  Every two months they hold a free Sangeet Sandhya (musical evening) at the Waverley Meadows Primary School, Wheelers Hill.   On 9 August 2003, two of the Centre's artists played at at The Boite World Music Cafe - Radhey Shyam Gupta and  Hemanth Kumar on Sitar and Tabla respectively.   They delighted the audience with music of great vitality and delicacy.


The Academy of Indian Music, Australia http://ravi.customer.netspace.net.au  puts on a number of concerts, including the annual Tyagaraja Festival. 

The Nataraj Cultural Centre  http://www.nataraj.org.au has, since 1980, presented annual Spirit of India Concerts and Cultural Tours. 

Mohan Ayyar's Carnatic Corner   http://www.carnaticcorner.com has a vast amount of information, images, links, interviews, and archives of discussions.  Please refer to this site for links to sites outside Australia.

The Melbourne Concert Calendar – specialising in budget-priced classical concerts.  http://www.alphalink.com.au/~grob/


The Boite - World Music Cafe and other events.  This is a fabulous part of Melbourne, and they sometimes have Indian Classical artists:  http://www.boite.asn.au .

Links to sites outside Australia

Please refer to Mohan Ayyar's Carnatic Corner, as linked to above, for links to other sites.

Karl-Michael Schneider's has an extensive link farm on Indian classical music http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~schneide/music/indianmusic.php3 which is part of an even larger set of music links: http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~schneide/music/ .


David Courtney's article comparing the construction, sonic qualities and playing style of the two most prominent drums used in Indian classical music, the Mridangam and Tabla: http://chandrakantha.com/tablasite/articles/mridanga.htm .


Two sites regarding the Santoor. Shivkumar Sharma's:  http://www.santoor.com and Sandip Chatterjee's: http://santoorplayer.tripod.com .

From the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, the history of Hindustani classical music, dating back to 2,500 BC, and a detailed listing of Ragas, their relationships and classifications by Thaat and by period of the day:  http://www.itcsra.org/sra_index/sra_index.html .