The Nitya Nritya Festival is a curated Indian classical dance and music festival, now in its 6th year of bringing the best of Indian classical arts to Utah.
We invite you to an immersive weekend that combines engagement with a range of Indian arts in formal concerts/performances, talks, Q&As with artists, lobby exhibits and also Indian snacks (the last two on Sunday, 11 Sept).
The programing for the 6th Nitya Nritya Festival is below.
Saturday, 10th September 2022
Leona Wagner Black Box Theatre
Run time: 150 minutes, includes 10 minute intermission.
Navarasa – A musical portrait of human emotions.
Krithika Natarajan is a Carnatic music vocalist who is a student of the world renowned Carnatic duo Ranjani-Gayathri. An A graded artist from the All India Radio and Krithika has been a regular performer at various prestigious venues, both in India and beyond.
See also: https://www.facebook.com/krithikanatarajanmusic
Vignesh Thyagarajan is a Carnatic music violinist who hails from a family of musicians belonging to the lineage of Flute Maestro Brahmashri Sarabha Sastrigal. Currently under the guidance of his uncle and Guru Vidwan Delhi Sri P. Sunder Rajan, he has been performing widely across the US and India as a solo violinist, in duet with his sister Aparna Thyagarajan, apart from as an accompanist.
See also: https://violinvignesh.com/artistprofile/
Vignesh Venkataraman is a Carnatic music percussionist who plays the Mridangam. From the world famous Umayalpuram Sri K. Sivaraman’s school of music, Vignesh was initiated by Sri Anand Iyer, also from the same school. Vignesh has accompanied various artists, including many senior musicians, concerts across the US and in India. He won the Best Mridangist award at the Spirit of Youth festival held by the Madras Music Academy in 2013.
See also: https://www.facebook.com/viggyfresh
A preview of upcoming work titled Sangam.
Jyothsna Sainath is a Bharatanatyam dance artist based in Salt Lake City, UT. She is known for probing thematic content from a variety of sources via the language of Bharatanatyam.
Having trained in Bharatanatyam in Bengaluru, India, she has been a student of renowned Gurus, Padmini Ramachandran, Radha Sridhar and Narmada, she has also learnt the Karanas from Guru Sundari Santhanam.
A recipient of Government of India scholarships throughout her dancing education and with an MA in Performing Arts, Jyothsna has since gone on to combine a keen academic interest in dance with wide-ranging performing experience in India and elsewhere. Today, her performing and training schedule apart, Jyothsna also routinely offers guest lectures and lecture-demonstrations in academic settings. In April 2022 she was an artist-in-residence at the School of Music, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In June 2022, Jyothsna was one of ten Utah artists who were awarded the prestigious Artist Career Empowerment Grant for the year by the Salt Lake City Arts Council. This award involves a grant of $15,000 to produce a large-scale art project in Salt Lake City over the next year.
Jyothsna will perform a preview of this upcoming work as part of Nitya Nritya Festival 2022. This is in collaboration with percussionist/composer Wachira Waigwa-Stone, flautist Gary Hansen, and Hindustani vocalist Suchinth Murthy.
See also: https://jyothsnasainath.com
Sunday, 11th September 2022
Jeanné Wagner Theatre
Run time: 270 minutes, includes two 15 minute intermissions.
SLC Ensemble Presentation under the guidance of Vidwan Sikkil Gurucharan
Vidwan Gurucharan is amongst the foremost of young performing musicians of Carnatic music across the world today. The grandson of musician Sikkil Kunjumani, elder of the internationally acclaimed flautists the Sikkil Sisters, Gurucharan has been under the tutelage Vaigal Shri S. Gnanaskandan and is currently being mentored by Shri B. Krishnamurthy.
In the summer of 2022, Vidwan Gurucharan conducted a workshop themed on Bhakti for students and practitioners of Carnatic music local to the Salt Lake valley. Selected content from the workshop will be featured by a local ensemble of musicians lead by Satheesh Hari Iyer, who will also present a talk to contextualize the theme.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkil_Gurucharan
Through Fish Eyes by Prakrit Dance
Prakriti Dance is an innovative performing company that showcases Indian dance. Under the Artistic Direction of choreographer & dancer Kasi Aysola, Prakriti Dance takes timeless movement vocabularies of the classical Indian forms and interprets modern day themes bringing
relevance and context to the ever evolving Indian art.
Drawing inspirations from nature, philosophy, poetry, and other genres of art, Prakriti weaves a multi-layered tapestry to transcend cultural boundaries and communicate the human experience.
Prakriti Dance has performed at festivals and venues such as The Kennedy Center (DC), Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival (DC), Dance Place (DC), VelocityDC Dance Festival (DC), Drive East (NY), James Armstrong Theater (CA) and Spring to Dance (MI). With the intention to broaden the horizons of accessibility for Indian arts, Prakriti Dance frequently teaches classes, workshops, and lecture demonstrations in the Washington DC metro area at schools and dance institutions. Furthermore, it aims to connect artists of this generation by collaborating and exploring the arts of the Indian diaspora in America, to find a unique voice.
See also: https://www.prakritidance.com
Divine Moments by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and ensemble
(Presented in Partnership with India Cultural Center of Utah)
The creator of the Mohan Veena and recipient of a Grammy award, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt took the world of music by storm with his pristine, delicate, and yet fiery music.
The Mohan Veena, being a clever adaptation of the guitar, speaks to Pandit Bhatt’s musical genius and is today an accepted vehicle for Hindustani classical music. Pandit Bhatt remodeled the Western Hawaiian
guitar by tailoring it to a perfect assimilation of Sitar, Sarod & Veena techniques. This he did by giving it an evolutionary design & shape and by adding 14 additional strings, thus successfully rendering it capable of immense speed and faultless legato. This creation and his mastery of its technique cemented Pandit Bhatt’s position in the world of music as one of the most expressive, versatile and great slide players of the world.
A foremost disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Bhatt belongs to that elite body of musicians that trace its musical lineage to the Tansen and his guru the Hindu Mystic Swami Haridas. Tansen was the court musician of Moughal emperor Akbar of the 16th century CE.
Salient features of Pandit Bhatt’s baaj (style) are his natural ability to play the Tantrakari Ang while also incorporating the Gayaki Ang on the Mohan Veena, this being considered a singular advantage of this instrument over traditional Indian instruments like Sitar, Sarod and Veena. Pandit Bhatt has been recognized for his virtuosity and genius, not only by the Government of India via a Padma Bhushan and a Padma Shri, some of its highest civilian honors. He was also awarded a Grammy in 1994 along with Ry Cooder for their World Music Album, A Meeting By the River.
Pandit Bhatt continues to travel and tour extensively, never failing to delight and enrapture his audiences.
See also: https://www.vishwamohanbhatt.com
Promotional Videos
https://www.facebook.com/nityanritya