Kolkata, Jan 3 (IANS) The Dover Lane Music Conference, that has been enthralling the classical music lovers from all over the country and abroad for over six decades now, will pay its tribute to 'Queen of Thumri' Girija Devi in its 66th edition this year.
The four day music conference that starts on January 22, will be graced by stalwarts of Indian Classical music including iconic flutist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, vocalist Pandit Jasraj and city based noted classical vocalist Rashid Khan. It would pay tribute to other supreme classical music artists who had passed away last year.
"We will remember classical music icon Girija Devi on the first day of the conference. As we know she was an expert in the Banaras Gharana, there would be two vocalists - Rajendra Prasanna and Channulal Misra of the same Gharana on the opening day," Bappa Sen, general secretary of The Dover Lane Music Conference told the reporters here on Wednesday.
"On the second day, sitar exponents Indrajit Roychowdhury, Matyas Wolter and Jonathan Mayer would perform as the 'Surbroto Trinity' to tribute their teacher - legendary sitar player Surbroto Roychowdhury while student of late Hindustani classical vocalist Vidushi Kishori Amonkar, Raghunandan Paniskar will take the stage on the following day," he added.
The Sangeet Samman Award 2018 will go to Channulal Misra, a noted exponent of the Kirana Gharana of the Hindustani classical music.
The music conference would also host three sets of father and son duo to perform in this edition including violinist L. Subramaniam and Ambi Subramaniam, sitar player Shahid Parvez Khan and Shakir Khan and Grammy winning classical instrumentalist Viswa Mohan Bhatt and his son Salil Bhatt.
There would be also be pure classical duet performances like flute and saxophone on the opening day, while the audience would get the flavour of santoor and Carnatic violin duet on the final day of the event, the organisers said.
Like on previous occasions, the list of artistes in this year's festival is a mix of fresh and famous faces.
India's only woman rudraveena artist Jyoti Hegde would perform in Dover Lane for the first time this year.
"It is said that unless you perform in Dover Lane, you are not close to your accomplishment as an Indian classical artist. I am excited as well as immensely grateful to the organisers for giving me the opportunity to sing here this year," said vocalist Waseem Ahamed Khan, who would be performing here for the first time.
