Arati Music Foundation left an indelible mark in a series of virtual concerts as a part of their initiative, Shanti, which came as a musical magic touch to people left anxious by the pandemic. This endeavour by the sitarist, Kushal Das, aims to help musicians affected by the pandemic as a tribute to his mother, Arati Das. The Shanti online series targets to present one digital concert each month. The first concert of this musical series was an enchanting sarod recital by Debanjan Bhattacharya, who chose Raga Chandranandan. He was careful to bring out the charm of the raga in his rendition, with an alaap, jor and jhala followed by vilambit and drut gats. He was assisted on the tabla by Sandip Ghosh.
The audience was also moved by the vocal recital of Rashid Khan (picture). He presented Raga Puriya Kalyan with his usual expertise along with wonderful support on the tabla by Shubhankar Banerjee. The brief rendition of Raga Priya Madhu Ranjani touched the hearts of the audience. Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium, Sarwar Hussain on the sarengi and Arman Khan on vocals supported him expertly. He concluded with his favourite, “Yaad piya ki aye”.
The second episode of the series featured the young sitarist, Kalyanjit Das, with sparkling tabla support by Shubhankar Banerjee. He played Raga Puriya Dhaneshree; the alaap and jor, followed by vilambit and drut gats were soulful with brisk taans and some intricate touches. This was followed by a scintillating vocal recital by Kaushiki Chakraborty (picture). She commenced with Raga Maru Behag and her usual style of rendition brought out the magic of the raga. She performed beautifully in both jhaptaal tarana and ektaal compositions by her father, Ajay Chakraborty, in Raga Bageshree. Sandip Ghosh on the tabla, Gourav Chatterjee on the harmonium and Meghdeepa Ganguly on the tanpura provided the perfect accompaniment.
Earlier artists like Omkar Dadarkar and Anindya Chattopadhyay had also taken part in this initiative, and these sessions quench an essential thirst for music lovers.