Bhubaneswar, Dec. 28: Students and teachers congregated from various schools of the state at the Rural School Intensive programme here that concluded today.

It was a one-of-its-kind experience for them, as they had never witnessed an overnight classical concert, that too, featuring an array of noted musicians and singers.

The concert began at 8pm last evening and continued till 6am this morning.

The event started with a performance by eminent singer Girija Devi. The renditions soulfully described the love and devotion of a woman for Lord Krishna. Displaying her grasp of other intricate musical genres such as tappa, bhajans and dadra, the gifted singer won hearts with her voice that traversed the higher octaves.

Working effortlessly on the strings, violin player N. Rajam exposed the audience to an array of harmonious renditions on the instrument. The Hindustani violin exponent enlightened the participants on the finer aspects of using the fingers and employing various techniques while using the fiddle.Pt Ulhas Kashalkar also enthralled the audience with his Hindustani classical renditions.

Around 500 students from various government schools in the rural areas and over 100 dance and music teachers took part in the programme aimed to expose the children to various classical art forms, along with training the teachers on ways to impart better training.

On Christmas, linguist Debi Prasanna Patnaik spoke about the relevance of language in the society and stressed that it was a strong medium of preserving culture.

The children also had a memorable experience of understanding the functioning of shadow puppetry from artiste Pulavar Ramachandran.

On the inaugural day, vocalist Ramahari Das presented classical Odissi music based on a range of ragas and Danseuse Sonal Mansingh explained various facial expressions, hand gestures and body movements that are typical to Odissi.

The weeklong programme included a number of lecture demonstrations by cultural personalities and screening of classic movies by Indian filmmakers. A major highlight was a talk by eminent artist Jatin Das, who spoke about art with reference to human life, culture and society.

A number of traditional folk dance such as Gotipua by cultural group Nakshatra Gurukul and chhau by Ileana Citaristi were also staged.

'The experience helped me a lot to understand the finer aspects of classical music. ,' said Ananya Behera, a student from the Myaurbhanj district.

Spic Macay conducted the workshop in collaboration with the state government. The government also plans to conduct the programme in the next four years as well.