A diverse audience packed the start of the Bangla music festival that has returned to east London for its eighth year.
Saturday’s opening at Bethnal Green’s Rich Mix arts centre featured the turbulent life of a Thumri Queen Begum Akhtar, a play and music scripted and performed by Srimati Chandra Chakraborty.
“The main objective of the festival is to promote this artistry on a global platform,” festival director Ahmed Kaysher said. “The audience was mainly non-Bengali, which inspires us to take the festival to the next phase.”
Also featured was Tagore’s music performed by Dr Imtiaz Ahmed accompanied by Amith Dey and Juber Suhel, while guest artist from India Aniruddha Mukherjee accompanied on Tabla, with medieval and early lyrics recited by Afsana Salam and Jahangir Rana.
Next part of the festival, ‘Tagore and his Contemporaries’, is at the Kobi Nazrul centre in Brick Lane on October 21 at 7pm, the House of Commons with Bengali classical music on October 25 at 5pm, then returning to the Nazrul centre two days later with experimental music, 7pm.
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