New series to get musicians to talk about their art

First Light’ promotes young talents in the field of classical music and helps them engage with their audiences

An arts foundation is promoting young classical musicians and training them on how to engage with a live audience. The concert series is called First Light, and its third edition is coming up in the city on Sunday.

Kishima Arts Foundation, which operates out of Bengaluru and Mumbai, aims to support young Hindustani and Carnatic artistes in two ways: One, to get them to think critically about the multiple facets of a composition and its legacy. Two, to help them articulate their practice in front of an audience.

For the latter, Devina Dutt, cofounder of the non-profit organisation, says they work with musicians to draft an interactive script. This includes anecdotes from their creative process, and the history and evolution of Indian classical music.

“The A-list artistes are already supported by market forces. We want to focus on the neglected parts of the ecosystem,” Devina shares the larger goal.

Upcoming show

In its inaugural edition in Bengaluru, the First Light series featured Hindustani musicians from Pune. The May edition features performances by Hindustani vocalist Siddhartha Belmannu, tabla player Sumith Naik, and harmonium artiste Sameer Havaldar.

The concert will include dhrupad and khayal and other genres of Hindustani music, and a gamut of styles in Carnatic music, Devina informs. In a first for the series, Aniruddh Aithal, a young Hindustani vocalist, will play the role of a presenter and host an interactive experience for the audience.

Belmannu has been a student of Pandit Vinayak Torvi for 12 years. He will perform morning and early afternoon ragas at the show. Talking about the USP of the series, he says, “As a classical musician, it is new for me to explain the creative process behind the compositions to the audience.” It also pushed him to explore less-known compositions.

Plans

The series will expand to cities like Mumbai and Pune in the future. “We want to create a pan-India network of young classical musicians who can support each other and build a strong audience base,” Devina says.

Plus, they will start uploading the video recordings of the concerts on the ‘First Edition Arts Channel’ on YouTube in June, and on the portal of the Classical Music & Performing Arts Public Digital Archive Project (2022-28), which will go live in December of 2025.

On May 14, 10 am to 12 pm, at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. For details, visit bangaloreinternationalcentre.org