Experienced musicians and young talents to gather at Dover Lane Music Conference

The Dover Lane Music Conference, one of the premier festivals in the country devoted to pure classical music, will project both veteran musicians and young talents on the same platform in the 67th edition of its annual festival, to be held on January 22-25 here. Singing icon Haimanti Shukla will be given the coveted 'Sangeet Samman' award on an inaugural day, the organisers said at a press meet on Thursday. "We must remember Hindustani classical music is in the blood of Haimanti Shukla and her base lies in Hindustani classical music. We had kept this in mind while choosing her as this year's Sangeet Samman recipient," he said.

"Dover Lane had always believed in promoting classical music and introduced the leading lights in classical music to the loyal and discerning Kolkata audiences as well as the new," General Secretary of the Dover Lane Music Conference Abhijit Majumder said. "This year we have planned programmes by both veterans and young musicians on the same stage during different days of the music festival," he said.

As part of that, the young instrumental ensemble 'Maihar Band' of Rajasthan will perform for the first time in this music conference on the inaugural day of January 22 after the sarod recital by veteran Pt Tejendra Narayan Majumder. Flute magician Hariprasad Chaurasia will perform on January 23 while on January 25, the last day, young famed flute artiste Praveen Godhkindi will take part in a 'jugal bandi' of slide guitar by Debashis Bhattacharya.

On January 25, the doyen of classical music Pt Jasraj will regale the audiences with his vocal while on January 23, upcoming vocalist Omkar Dadarkar will perform solo. Eminent tabla player Pt Kumar Bose and sarodist Pt Debojyoti Bose will also be among the leading performers in Dover Lane. The Dover Lane Music Conference, which started in 1952, will pay tribute to Annapurna Devi, Ustad Imrat Khan and Pt Arun Bhaduri - all of whom had passed away in 2018.

(With inputs from agencies.)