Indo-American Arts Council & The Town Hall Present
a fusion of Bollywood glamour with classical Indian music on Saturday, July 20, 2024 at The Town Hall, NYC
The Bollywood & Beyond concept has been curated considering the two different types of music blending together and bringing the flavours of Indian music to the audiences. Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam will start the concert with her famous Bollywood numbers followed by Dr. Subramaniam performing his original fusion compositions which are based on Indian ragas and performed with Indian & western instruments. Towards the end, both Dr. Subramaniam and Kavita ji will collaborate for some fusion compositions with voice with some really interesting alaaps and trade offs.
Global violin icon Dr. L. Subramaniam and multi-platinum singer Kavita Krishnamurthi, towering figures in Indian and world fusion music, will headline Bollywood & Beyond at The Town Hall in New York City on Saturday, July 20, at 8:00pm.
This concert is a presentation of Town Hall and the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC). A soulful, expressive singer with a powerful voice, Kavita has long been a star playback singer in the Indian film industry, interpreting offscreen the songs that the on-screen actors later lip sync.
It is a demanding art, as the vocalist must account for the actions and emotions that drive the film’s entire musical storyline. She followed her first major Bollywood hit, “TumseMilkar Na Jaane Kyon,” from the Hindi film Pyaar Jhukta Nahin (1985), with two enormously popular songs from the movie Mr. India (1986).
After giving voice to heroines and leading ladies in countless hit films, by the 1990s, Kavita had become a major star. But success in playback singing did not limit her. Kavita has also performed with orchestras, sung ghazals, devotionals, and Hindi pop, collaborated with jazz, pop, and classical Western artists, and
explored global music fusion, most notably with her husband, Dr. L. Subramaniam.
Born in a musical family (both his parents were accomplished musicians), Dr. L. Subramaniam was a child prodigy who followed in the footsteps of his father, a distinguished Carnatic violinist. He studied with his father and performed his first concert when he was six. “My mother would play the veena (a stringed instrument) but was also a singer,” he recalled in an interview, “and it was my father’s dream to bring the violin to the fore and make it a solo instrument.
Till then, the violin, in Carnatic South Indian music, was primarily used as an accompaniment. I wanted to play like him and be like him because he was my guru, teacher, and father.” Before fully dedicating to music, he completed his studies as a medical doctor. (For good measure, he later got a Masters degree in Western Classical music at CalArts and a PhD. for his thesis on Raga Harmony from Jain University, Bangalore.)
Fulfilling his father’s dream, “which was to bring the violin to the world stages,” Dr. Subramaniam seemed to cross musical borders from the beginning of his music career. He brought the Carnatic tradition of South India to Western Classical music, most notably as a soloist and composer for orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (with a piece commissioned by Maestro Zubin Mehta), the Houston Symphony, and the Berlin State Opera.
“The idea here is not to make an orchestra play Indian music,” Dr. Subramaniam once explained. “But to create something where both Western and Indian musicians feel like they’re playing their own music while creating something unique. With this context, we combine elements of Carnatic music with parts of Western classical music, like harmony and counterpoint, to build something entirely original.”
He has written music for films, including Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, and Little Buddha, and ballet, including the Kirov Ballet and the Alvin Ailey Company. He also collaborated with Western jazz and pop musicians (including the late Beatle George Harrison, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, and singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder), performed jugalbandis (classical music duets) with North Indian musicians, and explored global music fusion.
Backed by a seven-piece band comprising Indian and Western instruments, anchored by tabla player Tanmoy Bose, in Bollywood & Beyond Kavita Krishnamurti and Dr. Subramaniam will offer a program that will blend different types and genres of music, including Kavita’s Bollywood hits, Dr. Subramaniam’s original compositions based on Indian ragas and performed with Indian and Western instruments, and fusion-based duets. Bollywood & Beyond is a rare
opportunity to explore Indian music, from classical tradition to film music to global fusion, with two of its greatest stars.
