Global string artistes join hands to strum magic

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Sharat Chandra Srivastava

With the objective of showcasing rare and dying string instruments, Krintan, in association with Friends of Music, is coming up with “Strings of the World,” a world-music festival dedicated to string instruments.

Beginning November 16, this two-day festival will bring together 13 musicians, which include Dutch violinist Tim Kliphuis, two times Grammy-nominated chamber ensembles Trondheim Soloists, erhu-musician Liu Guangyu, guitarist Susmit Sen, pianist Utsav Lal, among others, on a single platform to perform together for the first time in India. The festival will represent all kinds of musical genres staring from Western music to Hindustani classical to folk, jazz and many more. “It is a concert to bring together all the string instruments in the world under one single platform,” says Sharat Chandra Srivastava, the owner of Krintan, who has his own fusion band Mrigya.
With young piano maestro Utsav Lal opening the concert, “Strings of the World Festival” will have musicians from countries like China, Norway etc. The festival will also give young and talented musicians to showcase their talent and give them an opportunity to perform. “Seven to eight young musicians will create the ‘World Folk Ensemble’ and showcase their music along with other performances by experienced ones,” says Srivastava.
Susmit Sen, who will be playing some of the songs from his album Depths of the Ocean at the festival, says that although music has changed over the years, the world of strings hasn’t. “There are hundreds of string instruments in this world. And these take centuries to evolve. Sounds, acoustic etc might change, but the real string instrument has not undergone any alteration,” says Susmit.
With singers like Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi, sitarist Nikhil Banerjee and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan saab as his idols, Susmit’s greatest influence has been Indian classical music. He says the poise or therao of Indian classical has influenced him since his childhood. He adds that the audience for string music has also remained consistent. “ I am happy to see the same kind of enthusiasm in the crowd today as I used to see a decade ago,” says the guitarist.
Having a vision to organise this event since 2011, Srivastava, the owner of Krintan, held talks and discussions with his Norwegian counterpart Steinar Larsen, while on a tour to Norway.
When Steinar agreed and got to manage some funds, the festival was finalised. “I planned to organise this festival when I went to Norway last year to perform at a concert. I became friends with Steinar Larsen, the art director of the concert, and shared the idea of ‘Strings of the World Festival’ with him. When Steinar came to India, we discussed and agreed to hold this event,” says Srivastava.
With the number of live concerts increasing every year in India, Sharat Srivastava feels that India is on the right path in terms of music. “India is right now the only country in this world to have so many music festivals at this time of the year — Delhi being the top choice. Just visit any theatre or any park or any open space, you will definitely witness a dance or music festival.”
This festival is also an attempt to revive the original “Friends of Music”, which was set up in 1995 by Mohit Satyanand, Kanika Satyanad and Val Shipley. “The idea behind ‘Friends of Music’ is to provide a collaborative platform to different musicians to perform at one stage. With this Strings of the World Festival we are coming back to the world of music,” says Mohit.