Berklee Indian Ensemble Presents "Natyanjali, Swaranjali - The Language of Indian Music and Dance"

Berklee is awesome for many reasons. One of these reasons would be the vast diversity when it comes to students and faculty. You can catch a Middle Eastern, African, South American, and early next week, an Indian music and dance performance!

On Tuesday, May 6th, the Berklee Indian Ensemble and Berklee Indian Dance Ensemble will present the language of Indian classical music and dance at the Berklee Performance Center at 8:15pm.

Focusing primarily on footwork, movements, and facial expression – called nritta and nritya – the performance will showcase the rich diversity of Indian music and dance through original choreography and compositions. Directed by faculty member, Annette Philip, Berklee’s Indian Ensemble’s vocal arrangements will blend classical, folk, and Indo-jazz compositions in a celebration of this diversity.

This year, the performance will feature renowned Kathak and Odissi Danseuse, Yogini Gandhi, in addition to original student compositions by Armeen Musa, Shubh Saran, and Ishita Sinha. 

Armeen Musa, a student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, wrote a song called “Jaago Piya,” for the Indian Ensemble. The lyrics for the song were by Musa’s mother, Dr. Nashid Kamal. The song is about telling yourself to “rise and open yourself to new things in the world and move with the flow of the present.”

Once she got a green light for the melody from Annette Philip, they sat together with the choir and band to expand the parts.  “It was a beautiful experience. It’s amazing to see how many different people interpret the same song,” said Musa.

New Delhi’s Shubh Saran will present “The Sunday,” a song he wrote just before leaving India to study at the University of Toronto in 2009. “It was a time of change – saying goodbye to the life I had in India and looking forward to experiencing life in a completely new environment,” Saran said.      

“Playing this composition now, five years later at Berklee, is a surreal experience. The song sounds very different than what it sounded like in 2009. Annette and I rearranged the song to fit this large ensemble, adding new sections as well as parts for the different instruments, giving new meaning to the piece.”

Hailing from Patna, India, Ishita Sinha wrote “Bhumi” for the ensemble over the summer.  She wanted to write something that would include everyone in the ensemble and would describe the beauty of the world.

“The best part is how so many people from the ensemble have contributed something to the piece. That’s what I love about music. From conception to its completion, it undergoes a beautiful metamorphosis. Then, the final product is not just one person’s; it captures a collective energy.”

Join me at the BPC on Tuesday, May 6th as we take a musical journey and explore the unique language of Indian dance and music traditions! Tickets are available at the BPC Box Office or online.

See you there!