Bhubaneswar, June 3: The Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra Odissi Research Centre will conduct workshops every month involving young singers and eminent vocalists to promote Odissi music in the state.
Youngsters will get to know about various dimensions of taals and laya involved in Odissi music. Demonstration of various musical instruments and their usage will also be given.
"We are working to strengthen Odissi music, so that it gets the classical status. Through the workshops we want to train upcoming singers, inform them about the present musical scenario in the state and discuss ways to improve it," said Jagannath Kuanr of the centre.
Last week, an interactive session was conducted here. A group of three young singers had presented an Odissi, Hindustani and Carnatic recital each. Eminent singers talked about the differences in the singing styles and the similarities in them. Veteran singers such as Prafulla Kar, Ramahari Das and Arti Mishra interacted with the participants.
The next session will be conducted on the classical instrument mardala on June 12. "The instrument has been part of our culture since a very long time, but it is gradually losing its importance. Our attempt is to encourage more youths to take up the instrument not only as a career, but also as a hobby," said Kuanr.
In another development, the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi has decided to bring out an album for Nabakalebar. All the songs would be bhajans, sung by doyens of Odia music such as Balakrushna Das, Bhikari Bal, Sikandar Alam, Nimai Harichandan and others. The album will feature 30 songs dedicated to Lord Jagannath and the festival.
"We are doing a lot of research for the project. All of our prominent singers have sung compositions dedicated to the Lord, so we thought of bringing them together. They are not readily available in the market and, therefore, we have formed a team which is collecting the songs from various sources," said Dhira Mallick, secretary of the Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi.
Around 128 songs have already been assorted. "During the last Nabakalebar, a number of songs were released, and we would attempt to include a few from those in the album," said Mallick.
