"If the power of Indian music seems almost supernatural,
than sitar player Kartik Seshadri must be the sorcerer."
                                                The Oberlin Review

Internationally acclaimed sitar virtuoso, Kartik Seshadri will bring Indian classical music to the Centenary Performing Arts Guild in Hackettstown when his Seshadri Ensemble performs in concert for one night only on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2003 at 8PM.

Sitar Virtuoso Kartik Seshadri is internationally acclaimed as one of India's outstanding musicians and the foremost disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar..

The Kartik-Seshadri Ensemble performs classical Indian music on the sitar, table and tamboura, creating ageless music which has been called magnetic.

 

 

"...could open the ears, close the eyes, fill the mind and numb the senses…A most giving and unusual magnetic talent."
                                        The Herald Times.

"A spectacular concert….The standing
ovations were spontaneous."
                                         Cleveland Palin Dealer

The Kartik-Seshadri Ensemble performs classical Indian music on the sitar, table and tamboura, creating ageless music Which has been called magnetic. Seshadri has been hailed as one of India's outstanding musicians and the foremost disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar. His consistently brilliant performances are marked for their expressivity, rich tonal sensibility and exciting rhythmic intricacy.

His concerts in India frequently include prestigious festivals such as the Sangeeth Nataka Academy, Madras Music Academy, Indian Fine Arts Society, Saptak, and Sangeeth Research Academy (SRA) Music Festival, establishing him as a musician of national importance. In the United States and Canada, Kartik's recent solo engagements have included:

Lincoln Center
The Kennedy Center
World Music Institute
Asia Society
Vancouver Jazz Festival

The system of Indian classical music known as Raga Sangeet can be traced back nearly two thousand years to its origin in the Vedic hymns of the Hindu temples. Unlike western classical music, as much as 90 percent of Indian music may be improvised, depending on the artistic facility and creative imagination of the performer. The musical tradition is an oral one taught directly to the student by his guru rather than by the system of written notation used in the west.

The very heart of Indian music is the raga: the melodic form upon which the artist improvises his performance. A raga is a scientific, precise, subtle and aesthetic melodic form with its own specific ascending and descending movement consisting of either a full seven-note octave, or a series of six or five notes.

"Kartik took to sublime heights the spirit of the Raga."
                                 Deccan Chronicle

His concert was deemed a "scintillating sitar performance" by the India Journal, Los Angeles, California. The sitar is the most popular stringed instrument of India. It has existed there in its present form for approximately 700 years. It is fashioned from a seasoned gourd and teakwood. It has a track of 20 metal frets, with six or seven main playing strings above them and 13 sympathetic resonating strings placed below. The sympathetic strings. are strummed upon occasion with the little finger of the right hand inserted in the main strings. The instrument is tuned to the raga being played, and the main strings are plucked by a plectrum worn on the index finger of the right hand.

Special Workshop for Sitar Musicians

A very special workshop with the Kartik Seshadri will be offered to the public on the afternoon of Feb. 15, prior to the evening concert. A limited number of slots will be made available for participants. Interested musicians should contact the Centenary Performing Arts Guild for time and details.

Tickets

Tickets for the Kartik Seshadri Ensemble are $15 for adults and $12.50 for children under 12, and are available through the CPAG box office on the campus of Centenary College, at 908-979-0900, and on the Web using oursecure server Online Order Form. Locally, tickets can be purchased at the Baron's Hallmark at the Hackettstown Mall.