Bay Area Bengali Music Festival

May 11, 2019 4PM to 830PM

McAfee Auditorium, Saratoga High School

20300 Herriman Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070

A large number of musicians from the San Francisco Bay area are collaborating together to organize a Bengali music festival for a noble cause. The goals of this festival are as follows.

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The important goals of this festival are as follows:

• Bring all the Bengali musicians of the SF Bay Area together to collaborate and cooperate to perform in a set of thematic Bengali musical programs. 

• Present the diversity of Bengali music cutting across multiple eras and multiple genres.

• Produce high-quality programs and maximize participation. The participation is not limited to any social organization of the SF Bay Area or any specific band/musical group. The collaboration is based on the common interest in producing the best musical experience possible. 

• Promote bay area's local talent including our Next Gen young artists to produce a musical program on their own (with appropriate guidance). 

• Proceeds from the sale of tickets and donations will go to a non-profit organization, helping underprivileged children and women of West Bengal. The non-profit organization chosen for this year is "Promise Worldwide (www.promiseworldwide.org)”.

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The various genres/ segments this festival will present are:

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• Next Gen (আগামী প্রজন্মের কন্ঠে বাংলা গান): The children of the SF Bay Area (30+ children) will present group songs, accompanied by talented Next Gen musicians.

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• Traditional Bengali Songs (পঞ্চকবি, পুরাতনি, লোকগীতি, বাউল, ভাটিয়ালি...): Traditional segment spans Thumri, Dadra, Puratoni, Ragpradhan, Tappa, Ghazal, Tagore, Nazrul, DL Ray, Rajanikanta Sen, Atul Prasad, Baul, Maatir Gaan.

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• Classical Based Bengali Songs (রাগ আশ্রয়ী বাংলা গান): We present a short program on classical based Bengali music that shows the rich lineage and evergreen music that stands strong thru test of age, shows the rasa, moods, seasons and sometimes just pure joy of music through short glimpses of popular compositions by great composers like Rabindranath, Nazrul, Anil Bagchi, Hemanto Mukherjee, Shyamal Mitra, Kishore Kumar, Ajay Chakraborty and RD Burman.

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• Modern Bengali Songs (আধুনিক): As the title implies, it will cover a number of modern Bangla songs, not covered in the "Traditional" segment (mostly from golden era and more). The focus will be songs from a limited set of composers (chosen to limit the huge scope) -- Sachin Dev Burman, Salil Choudhury , Nachiketa Ghosh, Sudhin Dasgupta, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, RD Burman and few more.

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• Bengali Songs in Instrumental (পশ্চিমি যন্ত্র সঙ্গীতে বাংলা গানের সুর): This section will render an interesting take on music by Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Roy, Salil Choudhury, and a more recent Jeet Ganguli.

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• Contemporary Bengali Songs (জীবনমুখি, বাংলা ব্যান্ড ও সমসাময়িক বাংলা গান): This section will present a very distinctive genre of Bangla Gaan - fundamentally non-elitist, influenced by world music and very modern poetry. It includes romanticism with reality, experimentation with folk, the inspirational and aspirational vocabulary of Moheener Ghoraguli, Suman Chattopadhyay, Anjan Dutta, Nachiketa, Moushumi Bhoumik, Chandrabindoo, Moushumi Bhowmick, Anupam Roy.

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• Rock (বাংলা রক): Rock continues to be the most popular and resilient genre world-wide - Bangla Rock has created its own space in the soundscape in both the Bengals. This section will render classics from LRB, Somlata, Anjan Dutta, Fossils and Baul-rock.

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• Grand Finale