Europe is the homeland of classical music. And advocateturned- tabla artist Nihar Mehta, hailing from one of the most prominent families of musicians in Ahmedabad, is taking classical music further, deeper into the interior and small towns of France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
Instead of Beethoven, Mozart or Purcell though, the 37-year-old is busy promoting Indian classical music. Having organised more than 100 concerts in Europe, Mehta is now busy producing 11 concerts from May 8 to 19 and June 8 to 19 in various towns of France and Italy.
“This is one of the biggest Indian classical music concerts in Europe. More and more people in small European towns are showing interest in Indian classical music. It is amazing to see a foreign audience silently listens to instrumental classical music for hours on end. There was a time when a music concert would end in just 45 minutes.”
The upcoming series of concerts begin in May featuring Ustad Shahid Parvez (sitar), Nihar Mehta (tabla) and Stefano Grazia (tabla). The concerts will take place on May 8 at Montecchio Maggiore (Italy), May 9 Bologna city, May 11 at City of Vittorio-Veneto, May 14 in Mouans-Sartoux suburb Cannes, May 15 at Royal Kingdom of Monaco (Monte Carlo) and May 16 at City of Le Cruesot.
On May 17, the concert will be held at National Asian Arts Musium in Paris (Guimet), one of Europe’s biggest Asian museums. Another series of concerts to pay homage to Pt Ravishankar will feature his disciple Partho Sarothy at Beaulieu Sur-Mer in France on May 19.
The homage concerts will also be held in Sauve (south France) on May 26; in Villefranche at a 12th century Citadelle featuring Shubhendra Rao (sitar) and Saskia Rao De Haas (violincello) on June 7. The series concludes with Ustad Shahid Parvez in Venice on June 19.
LARGE AUDIENCE
Mehta’s concerts are usually attended by an audience of 200- to 500-odd listeners. Commenting on the hard work of a decade which has now enabled Mehta to produce a regular series of classical concerts in the interiors of Europe, Mehta says, “I have learnt the skill by observing my uncle late Nandan Mehta, who organised one of the most important music festivals in India. I have re-written my own techniques adapting to the European model and demands, but I learnt the fundamentals from him.”
Mehta made a small beginning in 2003 with a 45-minute concert in Nice in front of nine listeners. By 2010, he managed to pull a crowd of 1,100 who listened to Indian classical music in a 7-hour long concert at the Asian Arts Museum of Nice. To eliminate over-crowding, the museum decided to limit entries of listeners to 700 people in 2011.
REMEMBERING HIS ROOTS
Last November, Mehta initiated the biggest concert in recent times. He got Ustad Zakir Hussain to perform at Theatre Lino-Ventura of City of Nice which was attended by 780 listeners. “Then I organised Hussain’s firstever master class in Nice, attended by 25 tabla players from all over Europe. The 4-hour class — dedicated to Ustad Allarakha Khan, Pt. Kishan Maharaj and Pt. Nandan Mehta — was attended by 50 registered viewers,” said Mehta.
Mehta has also been annually organising ‘Parampara tabla workshops’ at Nice, Paris, Lyon in France and Florence, Bologna, Turin in Italy since 2006. “My guru Puran Maharaj annually visits France and Italy to conduct these sessions every September. I organise these workshops as a tribute to my late uncle and guru Nandan kaka and my dada guru Pt Kishan Maharaj,” he said.