A music concert with 1,008 veenas at the Bangalore Palace

Bangalore: It`s a concert where 1,008 veenas will play! In a first-of-its-kind, the Art of Living (AoL) Foundation is hosting a music concert with 1,008 veenas Wednesday at the Bangalore Palace grounds to create awareness about Indian classical music and inspire the younger generation. "The objective of the mega concert is to provide a common platform for practitioners of the ancient art and create awareness of Indian classical music among the present generation," Suparna Ravishankar, secretary at the Ranjini Kalakendra centre, told reporters here. Ranjini Kalakendra is a Bangalore-based Centre for Performing Arts, dedicated to preservation, promotion and development of Indian classical dance and music and allied forms of ancient to modern art. The orchestra will showcase veena exponents from Bangalore, Mangalore, Udupi, Mysore, Kollegala, Mandya, Tumkur, Chitradurga and Shimoga across Karnataka with performances by its masters and their disciples. A similar event in 2008 when 1,094 sitarists staged a concert on Brahm Naad in New Delhi inspired AoL to organise this concert titled `Sahasra Veena Jhenkara` where over 808 women and 200 men will participate. The music for the 1,008-piece veena orchestra is based on ancient ragas such as hamsadwani, sriraga, mohana, mayamalavagowla, brindavani, kapi, dhanashree, yaman. A special composition of fusion music in raga malika will also be played to enlighten the audience with the nuances of the instrument. "The concert will be a musical yagna (ritual) where hundreds will join to create silence, which brings dynamism in life," AoL spokesperson Ravindra Prasand said. In the past, AoL conducted the `Naadha Vaibhavam` concert in Chennai where 5,000 Carnatic musicians performed in unison in 2011 and `Antarnaad` event with 2,750 Hindustani classical vocalists singing at a time in 2010. As one of the ancient string instruments in south India, the 1.5-metre long veena is made of jackwood. IANS