Music gets an open house with upcoming Omkar Music Fest

The upcoming three-day Omkar Music Fest at Prestige Shantiniketan, marks the 10th anniversary of Omkar Music School led by Hindustani vocalist Iman Das. In the past decade, the school has trained nearly a thousand students across the globe.

While the celebrations will see performances from youngsters on all days, one can expect performances from star artistes such as sitarist Ustad Shafique Khan from Dharwad and Partha Bose from Kolkata, a tabla solo by Ustad Najmuddin Javed, Mohiniyattam and Kathak performances by Rekha Raju and Snigda DS respectively, and a presentation of thumri, dadra, kajri and chalti from Iman Das himself.

Iman says he is happy that Hindustani vocalist and Muddu Mohan, a retired IAS officer, and disciple of Basavaraj Rajguru and Gangubhai Hangal, will be performing at the festival this year. “This annual fest is growing by the year and we have nearly 50 artistes participating in the three-day festival. Apart from a wide range of music and dance styles, including bhajans and bhavageete, there will also be a painting competition for children themed around music.”

Shafique Khan
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Special Arrangement

Santoor maestro Madan Oak will be coming from the US for the occasion, and a team steered by Carnatic veena expert Suma Sudhindra will be performing as will electric guitarist Swarnabha Gupta from Pune. Amongst Iman’s senior students who will be participating in the event are Hindustani vocalists Asmita Banerjee and Ankita Kundu.

Iman, who undertook advanced lessons from Pt. Ajay Chakrabarty (a student of Munawwar Ali Khan) and Pt. Shantanu Bhattacharya, today has students from around the world. “Each gharana brings a new approach to music, its interpretation or form, embellishing the existing structure. My lineage belongs to the Patiala gharana.” 

Seed of a dream

“I want to see if the IT city of Bengaluru can be a parallel IC (Indian Classical) city and I am working towards this from our Academy.” One of the aspects of the Omkar Music Academy, Iman adds, is the housing of lessons that discusses all systems of world music, apart from Indian classical Hindustani which is taught in all its forms here.

“I have a lot of Western music enthusiasts as my students and the best way to teach them is to make them sing in their own genre, even as I follow the Indian system of swaras and ragas. No other system can do this except our Sur-based musical scale that can be notated in its exactitude.”

Any world genre can be notated, Iman says, through the Sur-based seven notes and this system helps students of other genres understand the melodic framework and tonality of a piece. “At our music school we get students to cherish and value Indian musical systems.”

Iman Das
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Special Arrangement

Brought up in Kolkata, Iman Das settled in Bengaluru after his work received a good response from the city that, “embraces new aspects of culture and music with a broader acceptance.” 

A love for new ragas

Iman’s penchant for new ragas and composing began in childhood when he was drawn to sitarist Pandit Ravishankar’s innovative masterpiece, Raag Parameshwari. “The scale just haunts you; when I wrote a musical on Devi Indira, believed to be an incarnation of Meerabhai, I used it for the song ‘Maa Meera’.”

The track became an instant hit and was acknowledged by WNYR New York Radio in the ‘World’s Top Emerging Artistes’ category for special song /Sanskrit shloka.

“The fusion of two great scales here make it an interesting study for learners to contemplate its winding flow,” he says. His own raga innovations have been Swarnadesi, Vishwa Bahar and Swarnamadhu that artistes such as Anup Jalota, Amit Kumar, Venkatesh Kumar and others have appreciated.

Suma Sudhindra
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Iman also selected Swarnadeshi for ‘Ek Bharat Hum’ a song he wrote and created for nine visually impaired music students he trained as Team Sunaada that performed at the closing ceremony of the Para-Olympic Games in Paris recently.  

Iman, who has performed on global stages, is a recipient of this year’s Basavaraj Rajguru National Puraskar as well as the Karnataka recipient of ‘Bhasha-e-kala Samman’ (Linguistic Art Award) presented on September 14 at Varanasi.

The award instituted by Hindustan Samachar, the Varanashi Journalists Forum, was for his book One Nation, One Music: Ek Bharat, Ek Sangeet and his contribution to music. “I am happy to be recognised, but the success of a true musician lies in understanding the perfect ‘sur’ in the ocean of melodies we are exposed to. Also, every guru has to pass on this understanding to his students.”

Omkar Music Festival will be at Algorithm, Nexus Shantiniketan Mall, from September 20 to 22. From 4pm-9pm. Passes on Bookmyshow