Chhayanaut's Shuddha Sangeet Utshab begins on December 29

Chhayanaut's annual Shuddha Sangeet Utshab begins on December 29 at its main auditorium in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. The two-day classical music festival, comprising two sessions, will end on December 31 morning.

The 10th edition of the festival, featuring both vocal and instrumental music, will be formally inaugurated by noted music guru Ustad Saimud Ali Khan (Dinajpur). 

The programme will begin at 5:30pm on December 29 with the lighting of candles as a symbol of diffusing knowledge; followed by a welcome address by the organisers along with speech by the inaugurator and a choral performance by the artistes of Chhayanaut. 

The festival aims to fulfil the desire of music lovers for events dedicated to classical music and to inspire the practice of the genre in Bangladesh.

Besides group performances by Chhayanaut artistes, Satindranath Haldar (vocal), Yakub Ali Khan (vocal), Salahuddin Ahmed (vocal), Rajrupa Chowdhury (sarod), Latifun Julio (vocal), will perform at the first session (5:30pm-10pm) on the inaugural day.

The nightlong second session of the festival will start at 6pm and continue till the next morning. Apart from group flute recital by the artistes of Chhayanaut, several noted and promising vocalists – Sumon Chowdhury, Khairul Anam Shakil, Asit Kumar Dey, Shekhar Mondol, Priyanka Gope, Aloke Kumar Sen, Salok Hossain (Rajshahi), Liton Das (Chittagong), Tinku Sheel, Sanjiban Sanyal Shubho, Sushmita Debnath Suchi and Abhijit Kundu will perform classical vocal music while Murtaza Kabir Murad (flute), Asit Biswas (Esraj) and Ebadul Huq Shaikat (sitar) will present instrumental recitals at the nightlong session.

AK Azad Pradhan, Ratan Kumar Das, Shekhar Mondol, Gautam Sarker, Surajit Mukherjee, Bizon Chandra Mistry, Iftekhar Alam Pradhan, Swarup Hossain, Sabuj Ahmed, Tinku Sheel, Sanjiban Sanyal Shubho, Prashanta Bhowmik, Al-Ikram Raju will accompany the performances on tabla and harmonium.