Cultural programs offer an immersive experience
The Indo-American Association’s 2019 season, which unfolds from March through November, blends culture-bridging performances with music and dance programs that offer an immersive Indian experience.
With 10 shows that will be presented across three venues, the season’s featured artists include global stars and upand-comers, said IAA executive director Hari Dayal.
The season opens with a concert by the glamorous sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, co-presented by the Aga Khan Council. The heir to her father Ravi Shankar’s legendary, progressive style of cross-cultural dialogue, she shows the versatility of her instrument across musical genres, accompanied by a cellist/pianist and a flutist as well as masters of the tabla, mridangam and tanpura.
Dayal will cap the season with a major commission: A multimedia concert of Bollywood music honoring the Urdu poet and composer Sahir Ludhianvi, a progressive humanist who emphasized the importance of lyrics over flash. With 15 musicians, the show will tour to 10 U.S. cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, Austin and New York.
In between, Dayal is giving audiences opportunities for several deep dives into classical
Indian culture. The versatile vocalist Begum Parveen Sultana will perform in Houston for the first time. Nephews of the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan will perform soulful Qawwali, mystical Sufi music that needs no translation. And renowned Odissi dancer/ choreographer Padmashri Aruna Mohanty’s “Saptvarna” showcases seven Indian classical dance forms in a multimedia performance with recorded but specially commissioned music.
The culture-blending shows include the return of popular Zakir Hussain, who hasn’t performed in Houston in six years. His current Masters of Percussion group includes Houston native Eric Harland on drums, sitar player Niladri Kumar and the dynamic Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar Drummers of Karala.
Dayal has also booked “World Music Unplugged,” which combines classical Indian instrumentation with Western drumming, hammered organ and violin; and “East & West in Synch,” by the inventive married couple Shubhendra Rao (sitar) and Saskia Rao-De Haas (cello), who are appearing in Houston for the first time.
And gesturing to other cultures entirely, Dayal is bringing back New York’s Calpulli Mexican Dance Company with a new production, “Puebla: The Story of Cinco de Mayo.”