Month: February 2013

Chicago IL: In a presentation on Feb. 13 at Logan Center for the Arts of University of Chicago (UC) titled “Moving across Global Soundscapes: the Permutations of a Public Ethnomusicologist,” Amelia (Amie) Maciszewski explored documentary film-making and musical performance. A constant refrain was the constraints and advantages of pursuing such a vocation outside of academia. Prof. Kaley Mason at UC Dept. of Music introduced Maciszewski as sitarist, teaching artist, ethnomusicologist, and documentary filmmaker. Having begun her training in Hindustani music under late sitarist Suresh Mishra, she continues under sarod maestro Aashish Khan and Hindustani vocal diva Girija Devi. She has 4 CDs to her credit: Guru Pranam (2010) and Light and Legacy (2007) both feature her classical sitar. Sangeet Safar (2010) and Shimmering (2007) showcase her Indo-jazz fusion project ensemble Sangeet Millennium. A PhD in ethnomusicology from University of Texas (Austin), she has been visiting professor and teaching artist at the Universities of Colorado, Alberta, Pittsburgh, and Texas. Passionate about women’s rights and creativity, she has published several articles and produced 4 films documenting her research with courtesan musicians (tawaif) in India. Maciszewski resides primarily in Austin and Dallas. Maciszewski showed scenes of her ongoing collaboration in “Indo-Jazz” fusion with […]

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Chicago IL: “Performing the Bengal Borderlands: Music, Movement and Encounter” (Feb. 11–16) series at the University of Chicago (UC) was launched with a concert titled “Hindustani Strings at the Borderlands” at 7:30 pm on Feb 11, 2013 at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. It featured separate performances by Amie Maciszewski (Austin, Texas) on the sitar and Somjit Dasgupta (Kolkata, India) on the sarod. They were accompanied by Manpreet Bedi on the tabla. The weeklong series of events is hosted by UC’s South Asian Sound Interventions Series (SASI). Assistant Professor of Music and the Humanities, Kaley Mason introduced Maciszewski and Bedi. The former, a student of sarod maestro Aashish Khan and Hindustani vocal diva Girija Devi, is a sitarist, teaching artist, ethnomusicologist, and documentary filmmaker. She played short pieces in different genres popular across the Bengal region, starting with raga Jhinjhoti popular as a folk variant (jhinjhit) among the Baul musicians. This was followed by raga Saraswati, in acknowledgement of the seasonal worship of the goddess of learning, the arts, and music, just commencing in India. She concluded with a Bengali boatman song. Bedi, a local Chicago artist, is a disciple of Suresh Talwalkar and Ramdas Palsule. […]

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Chicago IL: Masti-Karaoke & DCA Presented Valentine’s Party on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at Sher-E-Punjab, 2113 63rd St. Downers Grove, IL. The event was sold out with over a 100 people in the audience!!! Valentines’ Day is celebrated with much pomp and fun in every nook and corner of Chicago land and across the America. Over one dozen events primarily catered to South Asian-Americans were held in Chicago land area. Among all these events, the choice of audience was ‘Masti-Karaoke’s Valentine’s Party’ voted as one of the best Valentine’s Party in town. All the singers from Masti-Karaoke mesmerized the enthusiastic crowd for over 4 hours. The audience was not only pleased with the performance, but applauded both old and new Bollywood romantic songs. With passion and love filling the air, couples danced to their hearts content. With red heart shaped balloons symbolizing deep and undying promises of love, the evening presented a romantic feel. Dress code for ladies and gentlemen was Red and Black. Tickets for Valentine’s was $25 per person (dinner included) and $15 for children. Celebrated February 14 every year, the Valentine’s Day is synonymous with expressions of love, friendship and bonding. It is named for Saint Valentine, […]

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Chicago IL: Ahimsa is widely understood as ‘not harming or hurting others.’ But is this its complete meaning? Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai offers an invaluable insight into the true essence of ahimsa. Bhagwan Mahavira expounded ahimsa as the ultimate dharma. One may question why a negative word ahimsa meaning non-violence was used. Should religion not denote something positive? Ahimsa – the State of Love In truth, though non-violence sounds negative, it is an extremely positive state. It is the state of absolute and complete love – and what can be more positive than love itself? It is only because we are familiar with the state of violence, that this term has been used. It is to ease our transition from the known state of violence to the unknown state of love that the term non-violence has been used. In order to obliterate darkness; the presence of light is necessary. So also, the darkness of violence is dispelled only in the positive light of love. Having understood that ahimsa means love, one may further ask why love has not been called the ultimate dharma; why the word ahimsa has been used. Again, the Enlightened Ones explain that there is an important reason […]

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