Indian percussion virtuoso presents jugalbandi

Anuradha Pal, India’s first female professional tabla and percussion virtuoso, presented an instrumental music ensemble (jugalbandi) along with her talented team of musicians at the Ashoka Hall of Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) on Saturday. The programme, which had an audience of more than 250 people, was held as a part of the ‘Festival of India’ under the Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture initiated by the Indian embassy in co-ordination with and support from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and Qatar Museums.The musical evening contained an interactive narration through innovative rhythmic dialogue on the tabla, violin, flute and followed by an ensemble between the tabla, dholak, kadtaal, pakhawaj, udu djembe and darabuka, the ICC said in a statement. Pal (tablas and world percussion) is an internationally acclaimed accompanist with top Indian classical musicians and an enthusiastic collaborator with jazz, African, Latin, flamenco, crossover classical, percussion, pop, rock and new-age music. Other participating artistes were Nihal Khan Mangnehar (vocals, dholak and kadtaal) from Rajasthan, Prasanna Raj Joshi (Hindustani flute) from Maharashtra, Karthik Nagaraj (Carnatic violin) from Mysore and Tushar Raturi (keyboard and udu) from Uttarakhand.Earlier, the performing artistes were felicitated with a Plaque of Appreciation by Hemant Dwivedi, first secretary (Information, Culture and Education) at the Indian embassy in Qatar and chief guest for the day, along with Manikantan A P, president of the ICC, and K M Varghese, chairman – Advisory Council of the ICC.In his address to the gathering, Dwivedi thanked the managing committee of the ICC for its contributions to the embassy’s drive pertaining to the Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture and spoke about the various cultural programmes planned for the next few weeks. Manikantan welcomed the gathering, and the programme was compered by Seenu Pillai, general secretary, with Nirmala Shanmugapandian, cultural co-ordinator, introducing the performance and artistes. Nayana Wagh, head of Cultural Activities at the ICC, proposed the vote of thanks.