The “Young Maestros” festival being presented on Saturday, October 27, 2018 by Boston based non-profit organization Shadaj will showcase three prominent rising stars of Indian Classical Music and Dance in a dance, sitar and tabla solo concert. The artists are Odissi dancer Arushi Mudgal, Sitarist Sweekar Katti and Tabla exponent Yashwant Vaishnav, who are professional musicians with prodigious talent and noteworthy family lineage.

All the three young artists, Arushi, Sweekar and Yashwant are children of performing artist parents. They have grown up in an atmosphere steeped in art. Arushi, daughter of the acclaimed Hindustani vocalist Shri Madhup Mudgal grew up learning Odissi dance from her aunt, the renowned Guru Madhavi Mudgal. She furthered her skills under the renowned Pandit Kelucharan Mohapatra. Sitarist Sweekar Katti is the son of Shri Sunil Katti (a sitar/santoor artist/music composer) and vocalist of Jaipur Atrauli Gharana, Dr. Vandana Katti. Tabla artist Yashwant Vaishnav learned from his father Shri Rajesh Vaishnav and also his mother before moving on to learning from Gurus such as Shri Hemant Sachdeva and Shri Mukund Bhale.

The artists are torch-bearers of long standing classical traditions. Sweekar is an exponent of the Etawah gharana and follows the “Gayaki-Ang” style of playing the sitar. Yashwant is imbibing advanced techniques of Punjab Gharana from Pandit Yogesh Samsi (Guru-Bhai of Ustad Zakir Hussain). Arushi is carrying forward the legendary Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s Odissi dancing tradition.

What is unique about these artists is that all of them are intelligent, sensitive and thinking musicians who have spent considerable time contemplating about art in addition to putting in countless hours of rigorous practice to develop and refine their technique.  They are traditionalists but are open to experimenting with contemporary expressions of art. Sweekar collaborates with fusion artists and Bollywood music while Arushi is co-authoring a book on the aesthetics in Odissi dance with Shri Sushil Kumar Saxena. Yashwant has dabbled with playing the Pakhawaj and Western drums in addition to mastering the finer nuances of Farukkhabad and Punjab gharanas of tabla.

The three artists have won recognitions and awards all through their career. Arushi is a Sangeet Natak Academy winner for young artists. Yashwant is a winner of the President of India’s Balashree award. Sweekar is the winner of the 2009-2010 scholarship for young artists from the Ministry of Culture – Government of India and a classical music award winner from a competition organized by Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj in New York. 

All three artists have performed at dozens of prestigious venues such as Ahmedabad’s Saptak festival, Ustad Allaudin Khan Samaroh in Maihar and Vedic Heritage festival in USA and many more. On October 27, 2018 they will bring their art to the Boston audience at the Scottish Rite Museum in Lexington, MA. The concert is FREE for students of Lexington Public school system. Preceding the October 27 performance, there will be music appreciation lecture-demonstrations at the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington where members of the audience can learn and also interact with artists at 7pm every evening.

Here is the schedule for FREE Music Appreciation lectures which will be presented in collaboration with Lexington Community Education:

Monday 10/22: Indian Classical Music 101 with Warren Senders

Tuesday 10/23: Tabla with Amit Kavthekar

Wednesday 10/24: Sitar with Jawwad Noor

Thursday 10/25: Dance with Soumya Rajaram

The Young Maestros concert is being presented by Lexington based non-profit Shadaj. Run by a team of dedicated volunteers, Shadaj has over the years, presented top-ranking Hindustani artists such as Pandits Rajan Sajan Mishra, Vidushi Arti Ankalikar, Ustad Shahid Parvez(Sitar), Shambhavi Dandekar (Kathak) and Ronu Mojumdar (Flute) in concerts that have been appreciated by the Boston audiences. Shadaj will share concert proceeds with sister organization Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (http://www.ksv.org.in)

 For more information about Shadaj and for tickets to the Young Maestros concert, please visit www.shadaj.org

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