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How to Love in a Time of Hate – Four Artistes Show the Way

Shab-e-Taj is both Journey & Destination

(Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the concert has been postponed and SAMAA hopes to have to schedule it in October. Watch for details!)

 Political chaos and borders, homelessness and lost homes, the language of hate. If you’re bleary-eyed from all the fire and brimstone, the grief and the tragedies happening all around you, keep just one day aside to rejuvenate, to replenish yourself.

Love is the great balm, the magic potion to make you whole again and believe in a beautiful, more compassionate world.

Come to Shab-e-Taj  – at Town Hall on March 22, 2020

Four fabulous artists make it all possible and give you one soothing night of love, faith and joy. Meet  TM Krishna, Hidayat Husain Khan, Danish Hussain and Marina Ahmad –. Here is a brief introduction to these four powerful performers who will be performing on one stage in a celebration of universal love.

TM Krishna is a world-renowned Carnatic vocalist who challenges the artistic and social orthodoxies of Carnatic music. Krishna is a social activist who has started and is involved in many organizations whose work is spread across the whole spectrum of music and culture. He has performed at the White Light festival at Lincoln Centre, New York. He has been awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award in recognition for his forceful commitment as artist and is an advocate to art’s power to heal India’s deep social divisions.

Hidayat Husain Khan is a world renowned sitarist who moves across all genres and nuances of music and can seamlessly transition from the very classical, playing intricaate meands (slides) of the Etawa/ Vilayakhani Gharana to Jazz to World Music.  His album from the ensemble “Melodic Intersect” has been included in Grammy Ballot for the best World Music Album in 2017. His album “Ziver” was Top 10 in MTV music charts and #1onBillboard charts. He has also lent his versatility in several film score compositions, the most famous being “Kamasutra”

 Danish Husain is an actor, poet, theater director, and instrumental in reviving Dasangoi, the lost art of Urdu storytelling. He has expanded storytelling under the umbrella of Qissebaazi, to include storytelling in other languages. Few of his major film works include India’s entry, “Newton” to Oscars in 2018, and other major movies are Soorma, Peepli Live, Dhobi Ghat. His latest Netflix show, Bard of Blood has drawn a lot of attention.

Marina Ahmad, Hindustani vocalist, has trained under Pandit Jasraj. She brings an interesting twist to the classical singing with her deep mesmerizing voice which has a spiritual element to it. She not only sings classical but also Sufi music with a classical twist. Her album, “Ineffable: the divine spirit within” puts you in a trance.

Imagine then, these four very different performing artistes bringing their own mesmerizing work to the same stage, each celebrating the power of love.

As Simmi Chopra Bhatia, executive director of SAMMA says, “A musical theater of this sort has never been done. I’m always excited about presenting things in a special way and this event promises to be one.”

The evening is about an all-encompassing love through music, poetry and story-telling.

Asked about the special impact of this virtuoso combination, of artistes, Hidayat Khan says, “I think first and foremost would be the love and regard we all have for each other. That would come across in the music and the stories we will share with the audience. I’m truly a huge fan of all the artists here. I’m super excited about working on my dream project that I’ve been thinking of for many years.”

In  Shab-e-Taj, the past and present are woven in with a tribute to the music of Maestro Vilayat Khan.  Love is not just romantic love but also a devotion to a lifelong passion.

Says Danish, “I wish to talk about Ustad Vilayat Khan’s devotion to the sitar, his back-breaking rehearsals for 12 to 15 hours per day, his fingers bleeding with calluses forming from relentless ‘riyaz’; his mother banning his singing and him tweaking his sitar playing style to let his voice descend into his string playing fingers, his tweaking the sitar instrument and transforming it in to what we consider the standard sitar.”

We asked Hidayat Husain Khan, son of Ustad Vilayat Khan about the specialness of this evening of love through music.

“This evening was inspired by my father’s and uncle’s (Ustad Imrat khan) Shab-e-Taj from the 60s. Music is always the background score to a story – . In this album my father did the opposite, for here the story was the background score to the music. Sitar plays the role of Mumtaz Mahal and the Surbahar is the Emperor Shah Jahan. The king and queen reincarnated to spend just one more night of love! How beautiful is that?”

He says he spoke to Danish Husain about this idea a while back but due to many commitments they could not bring it together: “I guess when it’s meant to be, it all comes together. This is my dream team of musicians to make this collaboration. Shab-e-Taj will be a night to remember!”

In looking at all aspects of love, Danish Husain says they will also touch upon Ishq as Inquilab – love as Revolution. “We will look at the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and other progressive writers who turned the metaphor of love into revolution,” says Danish. “The beloved was not just divinity but revolution now, an eternal human strife to create a just world.”

Why is this celebration of love so important in today’s world?

Says Hidayat Khan, “In today’s polarizing world we need to spread some love without judging or taking sides. It is fear that makes us crazy and love has the power to heal and make us feel wanted and cared.”

Imagine an evening of beauty, of positive vibes with music, singing and story-telling with protest poetry, raags, bandishes and words, in Urdu and Tamil – interwoven and embracing the world.

So join in for this evening of empowerment through love!

• Sponsored by SAMAA

Details at Tickets @ www.thetownhall.org

Buy tickets without surcharge  http://samaa.us/events.html