committee

The Soul of Spring

Jun 302012

Geetanjali Music and Dance Group , a veteran institution that has been promoting Tagore’s work for twenty years in Canada, recently performed the Soul of Spring:  A melange of poetry, music and dance  at the beautiful Mcmichael Gallery in Kleinburg. The production was part of the programming to accompany the first ever exhibition of Tagore’s paintings in Canada, The last harvest. It was attended by 500 people.

Adapted from two of Tagore’s dramatic renditions, the performance was a tribute to his view that the Spring symbolizes not only beauty and youth – but the invincibility of the human spirit.  It was created to give our audience a chance to savour his poetry, experience the immense variety of his musical compositions, and see them expressed through various genres of dance.  Performed by local artists, Soul of Spring is produced in English and accompanied by translations as necessary.

Concept and Direction: Manashi Adhikari
Script: Ananya Mukherjee

Posted by committee at 9:14 am

Manasi Adhikari, Founding-Director of Geetanjali

Jun 302012

 

        Manasi Adhikari was born, raised and educated in Santinekatan, where Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore founded the Viswa Bharati University. Since her childhood, she learned Rabindra Sangeet under the tutelage of great exponents in this field. Manasi Adhikari was the recipient of a gold medal in bachelor of Music degree from Calcutta University. She also received the prestigious All India President’s Scholarship for two years from the Government of India for post graduate work in music. Manasi was a regular artist of All India Radio and the HMV Recording Company.  As a Scholarship holder, she completed the M.Ed. degree and Special Education Specialist qualification from the University of Manitoba and served in different school boards in Canada for 35years.  Manasi founded the Geetanjali Music School in Toronto and Waterloo in 1989. Over the years, she has performed and continues to perform across Canada and the United States.
Posted by committee at 10:09 am

Tagore Festival 2011: Calling all Canadians to celebrate Tagore

May 242011

Please join us for this special celebration of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941): poet, humanist and visionary and the world’s first non-European Nobel Laureate.

All presentations are in English or with onscreen projections of visuals and transcreations. Our aim is to bring Tagore to the mainstream of Canadians, beyond the barrier of language. We will explore Tagore through music, performances, readings and photography

 

Two performances:
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
2:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Etobicoke School of the Arts, 675 Royal York Road, Toronto
(Ticket information below)

Note: both performances have the same opening ceremony and concluding performance, with small variations in the themes presented. You should attend either one.

 
Program

Opening Ceremony: 2:30 pm
A special choir to pay tribute to Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary. Performed in the style that Tagore himself created, it will transport you to Tagore’s fascinating world

 

Thematic presentations: 3:30 pm
(with readings, music and peformances)

  • Tagore, the lover of humanity
  • Tagore the voyageur
  • Tagore and Gandhi
  • Tagore’s music
  • Nature in Tagore
  • The folk in Tagore, and much, much more

    Concluding event: 7:30 pm
    CHITRANGADA: A theatrical performance based on Tagore’s adaptation of the opera style     A magnificent creation by Tagore where Chitrangada, the princess goes through an immensely powerful process of self-exploration of her womanhood through her romantic encounter with Arjun, a hero of the Indian epic Mahabharata
    Choreography and lead role: Kohinoor Sen Barat (India)

     

    Tickets

    Each performance :
    $50.00 (Limited seats)
    $25.00 and $15.00

    For information and tickets, please contact:

    Chhanda Das …………………………… 905 822 4020
    Dhiman Choudhury ……………………416 289 9625
    Anuradha Ray Chaudhury …………..416 224 5787
    Aditi Raha ……………………………….. .905 385 8684
    Irene Biswas …………………………….. 519 623 8195
    Dipak Adhikari ……………………………519 265 0676
    Tapan Majumder ………………………..416 466 012
    Alok Mukherjee ………………………….416 291 0219
    Munmun Chatterjee ……………………905 608 9069
    Shipra Lala……………………………….. .519 472 4501
    Nazrul Islam ……………………………..519 767 1269
    Subho Ghosh……………………………. .416 627 6375

     

    Presented by:
    Geetanjali Dance and Music Group, an institution dedicated to Tagore’s work since 1989

    Supported by:
    Tagore 150 Anniversary Celebration Committee, Toronto (TACCT) http://tagore150toronto.ca



    Posted by committee at 11:35 pm

    Tagore and China

    Feb 052011

    Tagore is regarded as one of the pioneers in creating a relationship with China. In cooperation with great personalities such as Tan Yun- Shan, he established the Institute for Sino-Indian Studies (Cheena Bhavana) in Visva Bharati, Santiniketan.  Click here to read a fascinating book published to celebrate the centenary of Tan Yun-Shan.   Amongst many interesting letters and correspondence between Yun-Shan, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Tagore, you will also find Tagore’s address at the opening ceremony of Visva-Bharati Cheena-Bhavana on April 14, 1937. This is how it begins:

    The most memorable fact of human history is that of a path-opening, not for the clearing of a passage for machines or machine guns, but for helping the realisation by races of their affinity of minds, their mutual obligation of a common humanity



    Posted by committee at 3:12 pm

    Not only a poet

    Dec 232010
    Posted by committee at 12:26 pm

    Tagore’s relevance today

    Comments

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