ANOTHER YEAR -- YET ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY

CHARINDAA successfully conducts its unique inaugural Festival of Indian Music in Australia in 2006

CHARINDAA celebrated the achievement of another milestone in the second year of its operations. The “SigaramTV-IndianLink-Honda Festival of Indian Music in Australia 2006” (FIMA 2006) was successfully staged in Sydney (18-20 August) and Melbourne (25-27 August). During these two weekends in August 2006, music enthusiasts in Sydney and Melbourne were treated to an awe-inspiring medley of Indian classical, contemporary and light classical music featuring some of the big names in the Indian music field

FIMA 2006 Finale in Melbourne, 27 August 2006. [Photo: John Kumar]

Big name artistes such as Dr. Ramani, Dr. Rajam, Lesle Lewis (the Sanjay Subrahmanyan. These versatile and legendary performers were accompanied by some top accompanying artistes.

Never before (in Australia, and perhaps even in the world) has music from different and diverse Indian music genres been presented in a single event such as FIMA 2006. As one visiting artiste remarked, “a musical event of this diversity has not been attempted perhaps even in India”.

CHARINDAA gratefully acknowledges the volunteers in Sydney and Melbourne, who worked tirelessly over the past seven months to conceptualise, publicise, promote, and stage the event.

A lot of hard work goes into successfully organising an event such as FIMA 2006. Here is a small taste of the scale of a Festival Tour this magnitude:

• Eight concerts over two weekends in August 2006.
• Five different venues to coordinate across Sydney and Melbourne.
• Five principal artists and seventeen supporting artists travelling from India and hosted over two weeks in Australia.
• Thirty volunteers (the C-Team) working over seven months, contributing over 10,000 hours of their time pro bono for the cause.
• A sizeable audience in Sydney and Melbourne that enjoyed the concerts.
• Creating and managing nearly 15 media releases and 10 eNewsletters to various media outlets and mailing lists.
• Organising nearly 40 interviews (some of which are on our website) with various media outlets during the course of campaign.
• And much more…

The Jugalbandhi Concert at The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, Friday 25 August 2006. [Photo: John Kumar]

The Jugalbandhi concert on Friday 18 August marked the start of FIMA 2006 in Sydney. The Indian Link review of the Sydney concert titled “A Sublime Experience” sums up the experience of the audience at this concert. Arvind Rangachari, reporting for Indian Link says “two legends, two parallel genres… and when their creative energies coalesce, the jugalbandhi (meeting of minds) is bound to be sublime. CHARINDAA could not have chosen a better way to inaugurate FIMA 2006.” In Melbourne, the Jugalbandhi concert was on Friday 25 August 2006.

Saturday 19 August featured the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The extremely appreciative patrons were taken on a nostalgic trip with music from the 1990s when Colonial Cousins shot into prominence on the Indian music scene. The second half of the programme featured some popular Bollywood music presented by Hariharan and Leslie Lewis’ remix brand Haseena. As Usha Arvind from the Indian Link summed up, “What good party is complete without a large dose of Bollywood.”

The Colonial Cousins Concert at the Festival Hall in Melbourne, 26 August 2006. [Photo: John Kumar]

Sunday 20 August featured two concerts of amazingly diverse styles at the Greenhalgh Theatre of the UTS Kuringai Campus. If the cornerstone of FIMA 2006 itself was the showcasing of varied acts from different genres, this diversity was best highlighted by the two concerts on offer on the Sunday of FIMA 2006.

Sanjay Subrahmanyan at The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, 27 August 2006. [Photo: John Kumar]

The idyllic setting of Greenhalgh Theatre in Lindfield was ideally suited to the exposition of the classical brilliance of Sanjay Subrahmanyan. With veteran musicians Nagai Muralidharan and Mannargudi Easwaran supporting Sanjay, the concert turned out to be a delightful mid-morning experience for all classical fans. All the patrons who made it to the concert on a beautiful Sunday morning were treated to a rare musical performance that will stay in their minds for a long time to come.

Several patrons wrote in to CHARINDAA to say that Sanjay Subrahamnyan’s performance brought tears to their eyes. Such was the depth of classicism that was on display.

Writing for Indian Link, Arvind Rangachari, in his review titled “Sumptuous Sunday Brunch” writes, “Scintillating, brilliant, mind boggling - these were the comments overheard outside Greenhalgh Auditorium, as the audience waited expectantly in the foyer for a post concert chat with Sanjay Subramaniam. And they perfectly sum up the Sunday morning experience.”

If the morning’s program was steeped in classicism, the mood turned to an amazing display of versatility and virtuosity in the evening. It was an evening where sur-taal-raag-geet-abhyas came together in an astounding display of artistry. This was coupled with humour, repartee and sheer entertainment.

The concluding FIMA 2006 programme in Sydney featured Hariharan singing a Ghazal concert at the Greenhalgh Theatre. The transformation of Hariharan from the previous night’s Colonial Cousins concert could not have gone unnoticed.

Hariharan's Ghazal concert at The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne, 27 August 2006. [Photo: John Kumar]

The patrons who made the journey to Kuringai on the Sunday afternoon were spellbound by haunting melody of his voice as he presented his ghazal-s with effortless ease. In her review of the Ghazal concert in Melbourne (“Hariharan Rules Music Festival”) for Indian Link, Preeti Jabbal wrote, “His technique was flawless as he commanded the correct use of alaap and sargam and his voice offered the right cadence but it was his ability to emote that held his audience captive through the entire performance.”

The same concert programming format was presented in Melbourne on the following weekend (25-27 August 2006) with the Jugalbandhi, Sanjay Subrahmanyan and Ghazal concerts being presented in the intimate and cosy settings of the Athenaeum Theatre, and the Colonial Cousins concert being presented at Melbourne’s Festival Hall.

Jessica Nicholas, the music reviewer for The Age in Melbourne titled her review in The Age “Beauty of an Eastern Bloom”. The concluding remarks of the review sum up the essence of FIMA 2006: “This concert, like most of the festival's events, ran for more than three hours, demonstrating the generosity and stamina of the featured artists. Perhaps they were responding in turn to the generosity of the 30 CHARINDAA (Charities through Indian Arts in Australia) volunteers who assembled the three-day festival: a mammoth effort for a worthy cause (all proceeds from CHARINDAA events are donated to charity), and a valuable vehicle for exposing Australian audiences to the richness of Indian culture.”

Proceeds from FIMA 2006 will support the work of The Fred Hollows Foundation and The East West Overseas Aid Foundation. The Fred Hollows Foundation is a non-government organisation which seeks to eradicate avoidable blindness in developing countries and to improve the health outcomes of Indigenous Australians. The East West Overseas Aid Foundation (TEWOAF) is a volunteer-driven charitable foundation which aims to ease the suffering of poor and disadvantaged people overseas through a range of initiatives in health care, child welfare and education.

The Finale in Melbourne with all FIMA 2006 artistes on Stage, 27 August 2006. [Photo: John Kumar]

At the end of the event CHARINDAA decided that the organisation is in a position to donate $30,000 to the charities ($15,000 to each).

CHARINDAA’s effort this year was generously supported by our many sponsors, principal among them being Sigaram TV, Indian Link and Honda. We thank them and all of our other sponsors for their support and their faith in CHARINDAA’s work. We also thank them and all of our other sponsors for understanding, appreciating and supporting what CHARINDAA stands for. Without their support, this event would not have been possible.

As the curtains close on yet another year of achievementand as the C-Team takes a break to recoup its energies in order to swing into action for its next event, let us take a moment to reflect on CHARINDAA’s journey so far:

March 2004	CHARINDAA is formed as a charitable organisation with the aim of mobilising one million dollars over the next ten years for needy charities through the vehicle of Indian arts promotions in Australia.
September 2005	The Inaugural CHARINDAA Event is staged in Sydney and Melbourne: A mega music extravaganza featuring A. R. Rahman, the legendary Bollywood music composer, and over 10 top names in the Bollywood music scene. CHARINDAA donated AUD $120,000 to Udayan, a charity based in Calcutta India that supports over 300 children afflicted by leprosy. Steve Waugh, the Patron of Udayan received the cheque from CHARINDAA at the conclusion of the A. R. Rahman tour.
July 2006	Udayan decides to construct a home for juvenile sufferers of leprosy in Kolkata. This home will be called the “CHARINDAA Sishu Kalyan Mandir”.
August 2006	The second CHARINDAA event, the Festival of Indian Music in Australia (FIMA 2006) is staged in Sydney and Melbourne. The Festival presents eight concerts over two weekends, and brings music of different genres under one banner. It provides an opportunity to Indian expatriate audiences to celebrate Indian music. It also provides a vehicle to expose mainstream Australian audiences to the richness and diversity of Indian culture.
September 2006	CHARINDAA donates AUD $15,000 each to The Fred Hollows Foundation and The East West Overseas Aid Foundation (total of $30,000).

There is more to come as CHARINDAA plans ahead for the future. With

• the generous support of sponsors,
• the dedication of the C-Team, who are the backbone of CHARINDAA, and,
• the patronage of Indian music and art lovers in Australia,

• The smiles on the faces of the children we raise funds for and the many people who will have their eyesight restored – through a combination of your generous contributions and our work.
• The satisfaction that you, the public, have expressed after experiencing our concerts.

You can also access further details of the "SigaramTV-IndianLink-Honda Festival of Indian Music in Australia, 2006 (FIMA 2006)", including venues, seating plans, sample music of all the artistes, etc, here.