GUWAHATI: Performances by over 150 artistes from five countries are in store for music lovers at the Guwahati International Music Festival which returns after a five-year hiatus, come February 8.
From classical guitar workshops to lecture-cum-demonstrations on indigenous folk, musical strains from the other side of the globe to soul-captivating jugalbandis of musical maestros – the festival has it all, having paved the way for a number of platforms celebrating world music since 2011.
The music festival to be held at Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Arts, Machkhowa is being organised by Eastern Beats Music Society in collaboration with North Eastern Council,
Addressing the media here on Saturday, Eastern Beats Society founder-secretary and the festival’s curator Aiyushman Dutta said, “The Guwahati International Music Festival was a dream which we had managed to translate into reality in the year 2011. In sync with our society’s vision to improve people-to-people connectivity through art, I personally feel we had made a good start about eight years back. However, owing to various constraints we have not been able to host it regularly.”
The objective of the festival is to provide a platform wherein musical maestros from across the globe can share stage and collaborate with indigenous music and cultural practitioners. In the first two editions, the festival helped create new vistas for cultural collaborations of top northeastern folk exponents with the finest of musicians from Goa, Nepal, UK, US, Germany, China, Bangladesh, et al.
“Some of the artistes in this year’s line-up include classical guitarist and composer Matt Bacon from the US, Thailand-based guitar maestro Padet Netpakdee, Sufi and jazz musician Manmohan Thapaliyal, Jazzmandu (Nepal/ Canada), three-time Grammy nominated Naga folk fusion band, Abiogenesis, among others,” Dutta said.
