Posted September 18, 2019
CONTACT: ANGELA WHITEHEAD
Communications & Media Manager
Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
Phone 937-224-3521 x1138
awhitehead@daytonperformingarts.org
DAYTON, OH (September 13, 2019) – On Friday, October 11, 2019 at 8 pm in the Mead Theatre of the Schuster Center, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Artistic Director and Conductor Neal Gittleman, will present Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra with Amjad Ali Khan.
The Leadership Sponsor for this performance is Premier Health. The Padma Bhushan Associate Sponsors are Digestive Specialists, Dr. Amol Soin, and Kamal & Nitin Kumbhani. The Padma Shri Supporting Sponsors are Drs. Hyacinth & Malay Dey (Simply Hyacinth), Dr. Indu & Ashwin Rao (South Dayton Acute Care Specialists), Janet & Vernon Fernandes, and Drs. Kabir & Urmee Siraj.
Amjad Ali Khan is one of the undisputed masters of the music world. Born to sarod maestro Haafiz Ali Khan, he is the sixth generation in the legendary line of the Senia Bangash School. Since giving his first performance at the age of six, he has played for audiences worldwide, bringing a new and yet timeless interpretation to the repertoire while being widely credited with reinventing the technique of playing the sarod.
Over the course of a distinguished career spanning more than six decades, Amjad Ali Khan has won numerous accolades including a Grammy nomination, the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum, UNICEF’s National Ambassadorship and the Fukuoka Cultural grand prize.
Maestro Khan’s first sarod concerto, Samaagam, comes from a Sanskrit word meaning confluence or flowing together. The aim of this work is to preserve, through singing and playing, the essence of both Indian and Western traditions so that they can flow into each other without artistic compromise. Amjad Ali Khan purposefully used the orchestration of Indian ensemble music in the pre-Bollywood era as inspiration and incorporated Western tradition elements that do not violate the rules of Indian music. In Samaagam, twelve different ragas are presented. Some will make only a fleeting appearance, while others will be explored for longer.
“I have been deeply inspired by the folk music,” said Amjad Ali Khan. “It is the most natural form of music. You can recognize a region with a combination of musical notes! I treat every Raga like a living entity. A mere scale is not a Raga. Even though the literal meaning of a Raga is improvisation within a set framework of ascending and descending notes, I feel a Raga has to be invoked. Since my childhood, I always wanted my instrument, the sarod, to be able to express the entire range of human emotions…to sing, shout, whisper and cry. All the emotions! It has been a long journey so far and by the benevolence of the heavens, the sarod has become far more expressive than it was 40 years ago!”
On the first half of the program, Amjad Ali Khan will perform traditional Indian Folk Music from Bengal and Assam, and he will present a Traditional Raga that he composed. Maestro Khan will be joined on stage by his sons, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, who will both also be performing on the sarod. Amit Kavthekar will be playing the tabla for this concert.
Tickets for DPO with Amjad Ali Khan begin at $12 and are available at Ticket Center Stage (937) 228-3630 or online at www.daytonperformingarts.org. Senior, teacher and student discounts are available at the box office. For more information or to order subscriptions, including flexible subscription types that include performances by Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera and Dayton Ballet, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org.
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About the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was formed in July 2012 as the result of a groundbreaking and innovative merger between the Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Together, they are the largest performing arts organization in the community, offering a tremendous variety of performance and education programs and setting a new standard for artistic excellence. Dayton Performing Arts Alliance performances are made possible in part by Montgomery County and Culture Works, the single largest source of community funds for the arts and culture in the Miami Valley. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance also receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created to foster and encourage the development of the arts and to preserve Ohio’s cultural heritage. Funding from the Ohio Arts Council is an investment of state tax dollars that promotes economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohio residents. In 2013, The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was thrilled to be one of five performing arts organizations in the country selected to receive a three-year “Music Alive” grant from New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is the proud recipient of a 2017-2018 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.