Hindustani-Carnatic Jugalbandhi October 23, 2009

LALGUDI VIJAYALAKSHMI AND PRAVIN GODKHINDI
HINDUSTANI & CARNATIC JUGALBANDHI

Friday October 23, 2009 7:00pm

Lang Auditorium at Hunter College
695 Park Avenue (69th Street between Park & Lexington Avenues)
New York, NY 10065

World-renowned carnatic violinist Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi is the daughter and disciple of the great maestro Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman. She has been performing regularly in violin duets and trios with her father and brother since her debut at the age of thirteen. She has traveled the world on concert tours and recently led an All Women Instrumental Group performing the "Violin Venu Veena Ensemble" in over 13 cities in the U.S. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi's devotion and discipline and her retention of the purity of the music have led to many awards including Sangeetha Choodamanai, Tantri Nada Mani, Kalki Krishanmoorthy and Yuva Kala Bharathi.

Born into a family of musicians, Pravin Godkhindi was fortunate to have his father Pandit Venkatesh Godkhindi, the eminent vocalist and bansuri artiste as his first and only guru for the flute. He gave his first public concert at the age of six and has since then been balancing between traditional and creative music, including western classical, jazz and carnatic classical. He was graded "A" by All India Radio and TV at the age of twenty-one. Among his awards are the titles Surmani, Aryabhatta and Kalanidhi. Pravin has performed in jugalbandhi concerts with Pts. Kadri Gopalnath, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ajay Pohankar, Vidwan Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath and others, and has toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, Muscat and Qatar.

A.R. Bala Skandan is a performer/teacher of both carnatic violin and mridangam. As a mridangist, he belongs to the school of Sri Karaikudi R. Mani of Madras. He has received additional advanced training from Prof. T V Gopalakrishnan on mridangam and ganjira. He has also completed his teaching degree in carnatic violin, and has undergone advanced training from Smt. T. Rukmini of Chennai, India. Bala Skandan is based in Manhattan and performs widely in the US. He has accompanied established international musicians and dancers and has performed in prestigious venues in Chennai, Europe and North America throughout his musical career. He also has many large music and dance productions to his credit. He has recently started an Indian percussion ensemble called Akshara, which features South Indian rhythm and melody. In 2007/08 Bala had the distinction of teaching and conducting the first carnatic student recital at the prestigious Juilliard School of music.

Charudatta Phadke, the talented tabla player had his initial training with Majgaokar and Rajaram Jadhav and later under the guidance of Pt. Suresh Talwalkar. He has toured in India and many European countries, accompanying a wide range of artists including Pts. Suresh Talwalkar, Ulhas Kashalkar, Birji Maharaj, and Ud. Shahid Parvez. He has also given numerous solo concerts in India and abroad and has been honored with many awards, including V.D. Paluskar and the Taalmani award. He has been an important part of such projects as Beyond Fusion, Taalmala and world peace and kathak projects with Chinese, Japanese and Indian groups.

Please visit Viji's website: www.lalgudivijayalakshmi.com