Tarang Ensemble

The Pharos Arts Foundation presents a unique concert of Indian Classical Music with the remarkable Tarang Ensemble. Led by the renowned Saraswati Rajagopalan, one of the leading Veena artists of Carnatic music in the world, the six-member Tarang Ensemble is dedicated to uncovering the numerous converging aspects of Indian Music and intermingling them with different streams of Western Music, while retaining their individual elegance and tradition. The diversity of genres coexisting in a performance by the Tarang Ensemble is impressive, and it is even more striking how these genres diffuse through each other’s boundaries so that a sense of harmony is achieved. From Rag Jog – the well-known rāgam of Hindustani classical music to Amritavarshini – the mystical pentatonic rāgam of Carnatic music, from the popular Keeravani, which was borrowed into Hindustani music from Carnatic music, to Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan Vaishnava Jana To, based on poetry by Narsinh Mehta, the Tarang Ensemble produces an outstanding array of tones and timbres and accentuates the beauty of Indian Classical Music by aesthetically embellishing its finer aspects and blending the technical intricacies of the different instruments into one harmonious whole.

The concert, which is supported by the High Commission of India in Cyprus and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, will take place on Tuesday 29 January 2019, at the Pharos Arts Foundation’s concert venue, The Shoe Factory in Nicosia, at 8:30pm.

TARANG ENSEMBLE
Saraswati Rajagopalan / Veena & Leader of the Ensemble
Kailash Chand Sharma / Flute
Biju Paulose / Keyboard
Aditya Chaitanya Kalyanpur / Tabla
Shamdath Pranavdath / Rhythm Pad & Morsing
Varun Rajasekharan / Ghatam & Khanjira

A NOTE ON CARNATIC MUSIC:
Ancient Indian musical treatises prior to the 13th Century indicate the existence of a single Classical music system in India. Over time, this system was divided into two streams – Hindustani and Carnatic music. Hindustani music was shaped by influences from Persia, the Mughal courts and the folk traditions that existed in the northern part of the country, while Carnatic Music was shaped by the music performed in temples, the folk traditions and poet-composers of the southern part of the country. Carnatic Music therefore features an extremely rich, complex and nuanced melodic and rhythmic system and a vast repertoire of poetry in Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Contemporary Carnatic music finds expression in voice and instruments such as veena, violin and the flute.

VEENA – ONE OF THE OLDEST MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS:
The origin of the Saraswati Veena can be traced back to the ancient times. It is one of the oldest musical instruments mentioned in ancient Indian texts. The influence of it has been so great that it gave scope for rendering subtle embellishments and derivations of musical notes that could possibly be produced only by the human voice. Therefore, the veena has been considered to be the closest to the human voice.

Tickets:
€15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation,
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/ Tickets_online.htm or Tel. +35722663871 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)