Atlanta, Georgia: On Friday, November 9, 2007, the School of Music and Office of Student Life and Leadership/Intercultural Relations at Georgia State University presented “An Evening of Indian Music and Dance” featuring the music of renowned vocalist Dr. Anup Ghosal, accompanied by Mr. Ashim Sengupta on tabla. The concert also featured Indian classical dance performance by Ms. Anupa Thakurta, a Bharatanatyam exponent and founder of Deeksha School of Performing Arts. The almost 300 audience members represented a diverse fusion of members of Atlanta’s Indian community, university students of all ethnicities, and music and dance aficionados from the city at large. The semi-circular stage of Speakers Auditorium provided an excellent setting for the event.

The senior students of Anupa along with an 8-year-old student - Umika Pal, opened the show with a traditional nritta piece called Allaripu, which displayed the skillful movements in Bharatanatyam. Next, Anupa herself delighted the audience with the graceful “Thillana” to the music of O.S. Sridhar. An enthralled and discerning crowd happily cheered Anupa’s two little students, Rati Roshni Sarkar and Sarayu Narayan, as these two young talents energetically performed “Nrityamala” to the music of Dr. Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. The grand finale of the dance program was undoubtedly the powerful “Shiva Tandava” played to the haunting music of Anoushka Shankar. Theresa Schambach, Ahona Chatterjee, Veena Anilkumar, Amita Nawathe, Nandini Sunil, Puja Shah, Shruti Prathip, and Anupa Thakurta each played their part to near perfection as the mystical dance of Shiva created the aura of the cosmic evolution of matter. The audience responded enthusiastically to the precision of the dancers’ individual and collective movements and to their beautiful costumes.

The highlight of the evening was the music of Dr. Anup Ghosal, the award-winning, internationally recognized Indian vocalist. Dr. Ghosal is a renowned musician and his career includes playback singing in several famous movies, including those made by the inimitable Satyajit Ray. Dr. Ghosal is also the author of Ganer Bhubane, an authoritative book on Indian music. He was accompanied by Mr. Ashim Sengupta, one of the most celebrated percussionist in India and a play back musician who has taken part in more than 200 Indian movies. Dr. Ghosal who also accompanied himself on the harmonium, performed a variety of styles of Indian music. These include Indian classical music, Tagore songs, folk songs of India and Bangladesh, modern Bengali songs, songs from the famous movie Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne and Hindi movie songs. Dr. Ghosal’s engaging performance and mastery of vocal music invoked applause throughout the evening as well as occasional unison rhythmic hand-clapping from the audience. Observers were also amazed by Mr. Sengupta’s rhythmic dexterity on the tabla.

Recognition should also be given to the Indian Cultural Exchange and Indian Student Association at Georgia State University, Dr. Mohammad Bhuiyan, the liaison and facilitator for the performing artists, Ms. Tonya Cook, the program specialist and director of marketing, and Dr. Oliver Greene, the program designer and artistic director for the event.