Daily Archives: July 8, 2009

Bannya Concert in New York

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A unique concert of Tagore songs with the accompaniment of Indian and Western musical instruments is planned for Saturday, July the 18th, 2009, at 6-30 P.M. at the fabulous sanctuary of the futuristic Saint Peters Church in the heart of New York City at 619 Lexington Avenue (corner of 54th Street), New York City. Rezwana Choudhury Bannya, the famed Tagore singer, will be the solo vocalist. Among the instruments will be Piano, Violin, Saxophone, Harp, Cello, Veena, Sitar, Flute, Tabla, Mandira etc. The musicians who will play these instruments are all accomplished artistes in their respective areas. This is the first time that such a concert is being offered where so many Western instruments will be played with Tagore songs (or any other Bengali song genre, for that matter) at the same session. As planned, Ms. Bannya will sing an average of two songs with each instrument individually. At the end, two or more songs are expected to be offered with all the  instruments playing together.

Suggested donations for the concert has been set at $100, $50 and $25, to defray the costs for the concert. Guests are requested to arrive on time and take their seats by 6-30 pm so that the session may start on time. The entrance is through the 54th Street south side doors, less than 50 feet from Lexington Avenue while walking towards Third Avenue. Discount parking is available at Metropolitan 51 Parking, 569 Lexington Avenue, south side of 51st Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenue ($15 for upto five hours).. For getting the discount, the tickets have to be endorsed by a seal at the reception desk at the church entrance.

Those interested to attend the concert and collect tickets are requested to ontact: 347-570-7787, 917-770-0146, 718-414-9743 or send email at following adresses:
email: smullah41@yahoo.com, sarwarharun@gmail.com

Goodbye NABC 2009 – Welcome NABC 2010

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NABC Time Zone On July 4th, Saturday night, the curtains came down upon the NABC 2009 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. But as the NABC lights faded out in the West Coast, Kallol of New Jersey got into full gear to herald in the NABC of 2010 to be held at the Atlantic City Convention center from July 9th to 11th, 2010. Although I was not able to attend the San Jose NABC, but judging from the excellent coverage on Urhalpool, it seemed that it was a successful one from an overall perspective. It seemed that the shows ran on time (which was unthinkable even a few years ago, NABC seems to have fixed that vexing problem and made this cartoon irrelevant), they were entertaining and dazzling, food was good, as were the long adda sessions. The second generation kids also seemed to have enjoyed themselves, some made new friends and some met old ones they met at previous NABCs.

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Jayanti’s are For Ever!

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By Amitava Sen

Rabindranath Tagore The derivative meaning of the word “Jayanti” in Bengali is, an occasion to acclaim and praise, linguistically speaking. But the word really means a Jubilee, celebration of certain anniversaries. More often it means celebration of birthdays of famous persons, usually dead than alive. In our case, the dates of these anniversaries could be an amalgam of many calendars. Saints and spiritual gurus are observed according to lunar calendar; Sri Ramakrishna is celebrated on the second day of the new moon on the eleventh month (Falgun) of the Bengali era. Poets and littérateurs have their assigned days in accordance with the dates of Bengali calendar, as in 25th of the first month (Baisakh) of the calendar for the poet Rabindra Nath Thakur and for some, the ones dealing with science, politics, sports etc. as per the Christian calendar; January 23rd for Subhas Chandra Bose, for example.

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