Accord Newsletter #6
June 2021
Celebrating the legacy of Vanraj Bhatia
With over 60 films, 7000 jingles and a number of television and documentary scores to his name, Vanraj Bhatia was one of the leading names for film and television music in India. Some of his most enduring songs were from Shyam Benegal’s Manthan (1976) and Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981). One would be remiss, however, to think of him as a composer of film music alone. He also composed works for solo piano, chorus, chamber ensembles and even an opera, much in the western classical sense of the word “composer”. His opera, Agni Varsha, is based on Girish Karnad’s play The Fire and the Rain.
Bhatia passed away on 7th May this year, at the age of 93. His long and illustrious career had its roots in his education in Hindustani classical music and his interest in Western classical music as a teenager. He studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London and spent five years in Paris under the wing of Nadia Boulanger. He was the only Indian student she ever taught.
The diversity of his composition styles is a testament to his intuitive ability to marry Hindustani ragas with western harmonic sensibility. Along with an openness to a variety of genres and mediums, he had a keen sense of how music can support the visual medium.
The Bangalore International Centre (BIC) teamed up with the International Music and Arts Society (IMAS) to put together a webinar celebrating his life, and the legacy of his musical work. Musicians Zubin Balaporia and Shwetant Kumar (who is Bhatia’s official archivist) discussed with great affection their association with Vanraj Bhatia, and of course his music. The webinar was premiered on YouTube on 1st June 2021. Click on the video below - it contains some marvellous illustrations of his songs, jingles and western classical compositions, along with tender and humorous anecdotes about the great composer himself!
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SASO featured in World Bank ‘Good Neighbours’ series
In a World Bank case study entitled “Harmonising relations: Platforms for Music in South Asia”, the South Asian Symphony was featured as one of the musical initiatives in the region helping bring people closer together. The study was written by Nitin Koshi, as part of the Good Neighbours series that works on advancing regional integration and cooperation in South Asia.
SASO is incredibly proud and privileged to be highlighted in this series! Click on the link below to read the article:
Harmonizing relations: Platforms for music in South Asia
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South Asian Musicians form a collective on Facebook
In the face of the isolating circumstances of the pandemic, Indian-American musicians Maya Kherani and Vijay Chalasani put their heads together to create an online space for South Asians practising western classical music to come together. Kherani is a soprano specialising in opera and early music based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chalasani is a violist and Assistant Professor of Viola at the University of Northern Colorado. The two met whilst pursuing graduate degrees at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and they stayed in touch ever since. They came up with the idea of having a Facebook group that could be a gathering place for South Asian musicians across the globe. And so, the group “South Asians in Western Classical Music” was created in February 2021.
Says Chalasani, “It is common knowledge that diversity of experience, thought, and background can improve the richness and depth of any project.” He firmly believes that South Asians can bring in a unique and valuable perspective to western classical music.
The Facebook group currently boasts nearly 300 members spread across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, the South Asian subcontinent and beyond - truly a global South Asian network. Collaborations abound as composers, conductors, singers and instrumentalists have been exchanging ideas and pieces of music to work on together. There are sure to be some incredible projects to emerge from this group of brilliant musicians!
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Written by Aditi Bharatee