Indian Music Gets Creative Makeover with Nontraditional Concert Series in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA - Aug. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- Philadelphia, PA – Sruti, The India Music and Dance Society announced today that it will introduce Indian Music to a young and urban audience by offering a concert series with eminent musicians, thanks to a $15,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

To bring Indian music to new audiences, the 26-year-old Sruti will hold a special concert series over the next 3 years (2013-15). Indian music, much of which is improvised like Jazz, is emerging as an area where traditional forms are now being treated to creative makeovers, and the series will play off that trend. Each concert will be held in a nontraditional venue in Philadelphia city’s core and will be accompanied with post- or pre-show chat sessions and a community workshop.

For this year (2013), Sruti plans to use Knight Foundation’s grant by offering a Sitar concert by Shujaat Husain Khan, accompanied by Samir Chatterjee on the tabla. Shujaat Khan is one of the greatest North Indian classical musicians of his generation. His style of playing Sitar, known as the Gayaki Ang (Vocal Style), is imitative of the subtleties of the human voice. Shujaat Khan's musical pedigree extends seven generations of ancestors all of whom were the leading artists of their respective generations. Shujaat Khan’s concert will be held at Zellerbach Theater at Annenberg Center on September 28, 2013. Tickets are available at sruti.tix.com. Sruti will also organize workshop sessions by Shujaat Khan to UPenn students and other interested youth on Sep 30, 2013.

Similar events will be planned for 2014 and 2015 taking advantage of the Knight Foundation grants.

The Knight Arts Challenge funds innovative projects that engage and enrich Philadelphia’s communities. About Sruti
Sruti, The India Music and Dance Society is a not-for-profit cultural presenting organization based in the Philadelphia area. The mission of Sruti is to promote Indian classical dance and music, to bring together the people of the Greater Delaware Valley who are interested in these arts, and to effectively serve their common interest. Sruti has been fulfilling this mission since 1986 with a group of dedicated volunteers. Sruti presents on an average about ten events every year including music and dance performances and educational outreach programs. Several are collaborations or co-presentations with other organizations including the Painted Bride Arts Center, The Annenberg Arts Center, Montgomery County Community College, and Drexel University. To learn more, visit www.sruti.org. All Sruti tickets are available at sruti.tix.com

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit KnightFoundation.org.

Please contact Nari Narayanan – Marketing Director of Sruti at srutiphila@gmail.com, or Andrew Sherry, VP/Communications at Knight Foundation at media@knightfoundation.org for further details.