The 7th Annual Sarangi Day

The celebration of traditional and contemporary Nepali Folk Music Sarangi Day 2010 is sure to let you experience the real flavour of Nepali Folk Music. The 7th Annual Sarangi Day is back. This annual celebration of Nepali music, food and film will take place today- Friday; October 29.

An all-day celebration of Nepal’s Folk Music Heritage. Sarangi Day will feature Nepali folk-lore, especially from the Gandharba caste members who have gathered in Kathmandu from all over Nepal. Sham Nepali, a sarangi player who has been involved in almost all of the Sarangi Day festivals, said the main purpose of this day is to promote the traditional Nepali music.

”We should conserve it and also save and promote it because this can help Nepal recognized musically,” he said. And the Gandharba Cultural and Arts Organization is just doing that.
 

In addition,the festival will also have workshops and master classes and a documentary screening by the Mountain Music Project featuring musical collaborations between the Appalachian Bluegrass players from the US with the musicians of Gandharba caste. Referring to young groups like Saksham and the well known fusion band Kutumba, Nepal said,”The young generation of musicians is also incorporating folk tunes and sarangi in their music, thus preserving the folk tunes. The coming generation can further learn from them.”

The event starts from 2:00 pm onwards with free entrance.

Kutumba to Perform in Commonwealth Games in India

As we all know that Kutumba is on of the Nepali musical band which is contributing a lot in preserving and promoting Nepali Traditional Music.Kutumba has confirmed that they will be performing in the Commonwealth Games in India, October 10 and 11. One of the most celebrated folk instrumental ensembles of recent times, the group of six professionals from Kathmandu will be taking their sounds to a world audience and sharing the spotlight with some of the biggest names in Indian and international music scene.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India, from October 3 to 14. The games will be the largest multi-sport event conducted to date in India. Prince Charles, who will represent Queen Elizabeth II at the opening ceremony, will formally announce the Commonwealth Games in Delhi to be open, jointly with the President of India, Pratibha Patil.

With a mission to preserve, present and promote traditional music, Kutumba wishes to spread Nepali folk music throughout the world. “It is such an honor to be able to represent the country. We couldn’t have asked for a better platform than this to take our music to a global audience,” said the man on percussion Pavit Maharjan. “It was a pleasant surprise when we got the call from the Indian Embassy. Initially, they had asked us to perform for16 days, but that would have been way too taxing. So we settled for two days,” he added.