East Coast Diaries

With the arrival of spring, the landscape came alive with cherry blossoms, tulips, bluebells, and daffodils, transforming the season into a celebration of colour. Alongside this came a vibrant line-up of music and dance performances, beginning with the Indian Embassy’s Holi celebration at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. With abir-gulal, sweets, music, and dance, and the presence of Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra, the event brought together hundreds in an atmosphere that felt strikingly close to home.

I felt compelled to document my musical experiences in America. This article reflects three memorable performances from March and April: the Ravi Shankar Ensemble, Maithili Prakash’s Jwala, and a vocal recital by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande.

The Ravi Shankar Ensemble

Ravi Shankar was not only a legendary sitar maestro but also a visionary composer who created richly layered, multidimensional music. To celebrate his legacy, his wife, Sukanya Shankar and daughter-disciple, Anoushka Shankar, curated the Ravi Shankar Ensemble, touring the US through 2026 after a successful premiere in New Delhi.

The concert at the Strathmore Music Centre in Washington drew a full and expectant audience. The six-member ensemble - Shubhendra Rao (sitar), Ayush Mohan (sarod), Ravichandra Kulur (flute), Padma Shankar (violin and vocals), B. C. Manjunath (mridangam), and Anubrata Chatterjee (tabla) - presented a thoughtfully-curated selection of Ravi Shankar’s compositions.

The programme opened with a recorded Sanskrit invocation in the maestro’s own voice, followed by a live rendering in raga Bairagi. The ensemble then moved into Sandhya raga (based on Yaman), originally composed for a Russian choir, blending ensemble passages with expressive solo interludes.

A highlight of the evening was the tarana in Sindhu Bhairavi, where the musicians revealed their dual prowess as instrumentalists and vocalists. The presentation of Manjh Khamaj included the evocative film song Jaane kaise sapnon mein kho gayi ankhiyan, composed by Ravi Shankar himself, demonstrating the seamless bridge between classical and cinematic idioms.

Equally engaging was Jogeshwari, a raga created by Ravi Shankar, presented as a sitar–sarod jugalbandi. The performance moved through alap, jod, jhala, and compositions in Jhap tala and Teen tala, culminating in a tani avartanam. While the tabla’s low volume slightly muted its impact, the rhythmic interplay remained compelling.

The concert concluded with a rasia and raga Yaman, accompanied by an archival footage of the maestro expressing gratitude to the audience. The standing ovation that followed was not merely an act of appreciation - it was a collective tribute to a musical legacy that continues to resonate across generations and geographies.

This programme, which featured archival visuals alongside live performances of Ravi Shankar's soul-stirring music, was produced by Schirmer Theatrical. The ensemble aims to bring to light some of Ravi Shankar's best, and sometimes unpublished, compositions.

Mythili Prakash’s Jwala

Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer Mythili Prakash presented her recent work Jwala at The Barns at Wolf Trap under the patronage of the District of Raga, an organisation that has become a significant platform for South Asian performing arts in the Washington region.

Mythili the daughter and disciple of Viji Prakash, mentored by Malavika Sarukkai, represents a synthesis of rigorous training and personal inquiry. Though raised in the US, her sustained engagement with India keeps her work deeply-rooted in tradition while at the same time, speaking of contemporary realities.

Jwala explores the metaphor of fire as both a creative and destructive force -traversing themes of birth and death, nurturing and loss, creation and dissolution. Drawing from sources as diverse as the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, Vedic hymns to agni, the Katha Upanishad, and Sufi poetry, the work weaves a layered yet cohesive narrative.

The production opened with raga Nata, as a single beam of light revealed the flickering form of a flame through delicate hand gestures. As the Mahamrityunjaya mantra resonated, light spread across the stage, visually echoing the expansion and spread of fire.

Subsequent segments used ragas such as Mohanam, Kapi (with shades of Pilu), and Yaman, each aligned with the narrative's emotional tone. A lullaby in Kapi and a Sufi composition in Yaman added layers of intimacy and introspection.

The accompanying ensemble - Rohan Krishnamurthy (mridangam), Sai Rakshith (violin), and vocalists Rohit Jaykumar and Roopa Mahadevan -  provided sensitive and cohesive musical support. The minimalist costume and restrained staging further emphasised the thematic depth.

At times, however, the work’s conceptual density risked overwhelming the audience, where greater stillness or sharper transitions might have enhanced clarity. Yet these remain minor observations within an otherwise compelling production.

An enchanting evening with Ashwini Bhide Deshpande

In the Washington, D.C. area, the organisation Naad Rang, dedicated to Hindustani classical music, presented a memorable vocal recital by the distinguished Jaipur-Atrauli gharana exponent, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, at the Shri Venkatesh Lotus Temple auditorium. A hallmark of Bhide’s artistry is the meticulous care with which she designs the architecture of each concert - and this evening was no exception. Keeping in mind the convention of time-theory of rendering ragas appropriate to the hour, she commenced with raga Madhuwanti, perfectly suited to the twilight.

With a brief, evocative alap, she gently established the mood before unfolding the vilambit khayal in Teen taal, Saanjh bhai din dooba, ajahu na aaye pritam pyare, in keeping with the traditions of her gharana. Lingering over the opening phrase Saanjh bhai …” she expanded it with unhurried depth, her voice caressing each note as it descended into the lower octave, revealing the raga’s layered beauty. In din dooba, one could almost behold the crimson hues of the setting sun dissolving into the sea, with each tonal inflection mirroring a shifting shade of dusk. The poignant yearning embedded in ajahu na aaye pritam pyare evoked the ache of separation with striking emotional resonance. Having imbued the composition with rich bhava, she gradually increased the tempo, weaving intricate bol-baant, sargam, and taans that guided the audience into a deeply immersive experience.

For the drut segment, she chose the Carnatic raga Dharmavati, akin to Hindustani Madhuwanti yet structurally more expansive, which was a creative and thoughtful idea. While both ragas share the same tonal material, Madhuwanti omits two notes in ascent, whereas Dharmavati employs all seven swaras, lending it a fuller contour. The bandish Sohe lalat chanda, set in the nine-beat Matta taal at a medium-slow tempo, showcased her command over rhythmic nuances. This flowed seamlessly into the lively drut Teen tala composition Bal Ganapati naache, bringing the principal presentation to a vibrant and exhilarating crescendo.

The Jaipur-Atrauli gharana’s celebrated tradition of Jod ragas found expression in Basanti-Kedar, a melodic confluence of Basant and Kedar. Rendering the traditional bandish Atar sugandh in Roopak tala, she then transitioned into the drut Ek taal composition by Mogubai Kurdikar, Khelan aai naveli naar, ritu basant ko dhoom machi hai. Through playful improvisation and a dazzling array of taans, she evoked the joyous exuberance of spring.

The mood then softened into lyrical romanticism with a Dadra in raga Pahadi, composed by. Anita Sen - Mori atariya pe kaga bole - imbued with the delicate charm of the thumri tradition. This was followed by a Meera bhajan, Araj suno dayal mhari arji, rendered in an authentic Kathiawadi folk idiom, offering a distinct and soulful flavour. Sanjay Deshpande on tabla, Siddhesh Bicholkar on harmonium and her well-trained disciple Avanti Patel on vocals provided the ideal accompaniment.

Ashwini’s concluding Bhairavi departed from the customary thumri or bhajan format, instead presenting the raga in a more classical and exploratory light. Featuring a rare composition by Chaitanya Kunte in an unconventional nine-and-a-half beat cycle, Kahe Shyam rokat dagariya, followed by a Drut Ek taal tarana, she brought the recital to a sublime and an unforgettable closure. The audience was left with a sense of aesthetic fulfilment, an experience of musical transcendence that lingered long after the final note had faded.

Jwala: Photographer Credit: Gajanand Shekhar

Ravi Shankar Ensemble: Photo Credit: Jim Saah