Sur Jahan (literally meaning Music World) is a unique world peace
music festival of India held in Kolkata and Goa every February with the motto
“Music for Peace, Music for All”. The three-day event brings together artists
and musicians from home and abroad to celebrate cultural diversity through world music and
facilitate exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences with the explicit aim to bridge minds
and spread the culture of knowledge, understanding and tolerance.
Starting its journey as Sufi
Sutra in Kolkata in 2011, it was renamed in 2017 to better reflect the wide
range of music genres it curates. Artists from 26 countries and 12 Indian
states have participated in the festival till date.
Sur
Jahan simultaneously showcases creations and performances of India’s rural
artists and crafts persons. In doing so, it rekindles our people’s urge to
revisit and take pride in their own folk cultural heritage. The array of rich
and living traditions of performing folk arts on offer, right from the martial
Chau dance to the acrobatic Raibenshe, unfailingly enthrall both young and old
and native and foreign spectators! In effect, over time, Sur Jahan has evolved
into an architecture that offers multiple windows of opportunity and networking
between the artists, musicians, audiences, business houses, event organizers,
students, researchers and the global music, art and craft fraternity.
The festival is conceptualized,
designed and implemented by banglanatak dot com, a 17-year-old social
enterprise based in Kolkata and in consultative status with the UNESCO’s ICH
Committee and United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC). The Goa
edition of Sur Jahan is co-hosted by the Department of Art and Culture,
Government of Goa, and the Kala Academy of Goa.
Sur Jahan today is a signature
non-commercial festival of both Kolkata and Goa, drawing teeming crowds cutting
across all divides of age and community.
We have the pleasure to announce that among the five
international music groups we are hosting in Sur Jahan 2018, one is led by
WOMEX Lifetime Award winner Cheikh Lo of Senegal. The other teams include the
globally acclaimed Ethiopian & Italian fusion folk band Atse Tewodros
Project, Hungary’s renowned folk music team Muzsikas, Muzykanci of Poland which
represents the best of Polish folk, and Tuuletar, an all-women A Cappella band of Finland
named after the Finish Goddess of the Wind. Sharing stage with them will be our
especially groomed bands including Folks of Bengal. Here is a sneak peek into
the fare on offer. Enjoy it and join us at the festival!!
Comments
Post a Comment