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Tamasha will be presenting its "Classical Music Festival - 2004 at the Bishop's College Auditorium, Colombo on August 20 at 7 p.m. Two internationally renowned artistes from India and two well-known local artistes will be featured on this day.

This is the second Classical Music Festival organized by Tamasha. The first Classical Music Festival was held at the Lionel Wendt Theatre in February last year and Pt. Ashok Goswami, a leading Violin Virtuoso of India was invited for this purpose. It is a feature of these Classical Music Festivals that one or two internationally renowned artistes from abroad are invited to present their creations.


Kumar Liyanawatta	Moksha Samarasooriya

A couple of local artistes are also featured on the same platform. Those who will be featured in this month's festival will be Devashish Dey who is a renowned vocalist of classical music. He has also to his credit Bhajans and Bengali songs of high quality.

He has received his training under Pt. Pashupati Nath Mishra and Pt. Mukund Visnu Kalvint, the latter being a disciple of Pt. Ratanjankar.

The other Indian artiste who will be featured is Madan Mohan Upadhyaya who is a renowned Tabla player. He belongs to an illustrious family of musicians of Bihar. Both these artistes have performed in several countries abroad in addition to recitals on the Indian electronic media.

Two local artistes will also be featured and they are Kumari Moksha Samarasooriya of Gampaha, a versatile musician and dancer and Sarath Kumar Liyanawatta who has specialized in playing the flute. This particular evening is expected to be an enthralling one.


Chitral Panditha	Devashi Dey	Madan Mohan Upadhyaya

"Tamasha" is a company set up by a few oriental classical music enthusiasts in 2000. Among its main objectives are the following:

* Provide opportunities to those interested in the fine arts to listen to and appreciate classical and indigenous music and dance.

* Organize music recitals and lectures which will present creations of erudite artistes as well as accomplished young artistes.

The company also proposes to produce cassettes, C.Ds, and videos of classical and indigenous music. Among other things the company also proposes to award scholarships to music students so that they could proceed abroad for further studies.

While annual Classical Music Festivals are the highlight of the company presentations, these are interspersed with music concerts from time to time where only local artistes are featured in order to provide them with an audience which they hardly get.

Tamasha has already presented four such recitals and attendance has been exclusively by invitation. By the way, Tamasha is a non-profit making organization, dedicated to the promotion of Oriental classical Music.

The prime movers behind this venture are four classical music enthusiasts who have studied oriental music in depth but whose vocations are engineering, architecture and technology.

Its Chairman is Chitral Pandita, who is a British qualified engineer. He is also a Sangeeth Visharad of Bhatkande University.

The others are Vadya Nipun Upula Madhushankha, Vadya Visharad Yathna Perera and Bass Guitarist Rohita Senanayake.

The guiding light behind these activities is Chitral Pandita's Guru-dev Pt. Somasiri Illesinghe whose advice has been forthcoming in abundance.

In modern parlance the word Tamasha has acquired a connotation of total merriment.

This is rather unfortunate since its original connotation is that of a special session of classical music held by renowned North Indian musicians in the evenings extending far into the night, totally for the appreciation of music. The objective here is the uplift of the content of classical music.

In fact improvisation is the soul of Indian music. It is as much an art to listen to good music as it is to render it.

In it, the artiste and the audience form one unit. Art and music should not come down from its pedestal to greet its new but un-informed patrons. On the contrary what is desirable is to lift the patrons closer to that pedestal.

Art and music will be dead only because of the negative attitude of people who have no interest in it. Tamasha is conscious of these concepts.