Interview: PAVITHRA CHARI AND ANINDO BOSE Of Shadow And Light Talk About Their US Tour
By: Zofeen Maqsood May. 30, 2018
Musicians Anindo Bose and Pavithra Chari, who together form a contemporary classical musical duo Shadow and Light, are lending a new approach to Indian classical music as we know it. The duo have released three full albums and their latest titled Sabar has been streamed over 1.5 million times on Saavn alone since its February 2018 release. The duo fuse genres of classical, contemporary, pop and jazz. They have just completed a successful US tour and have gained wide appreciation for their style of music.
BWW talks to the duo on music and fusion and their tour
You have been performing all across the US. Tell us about your concert?
This was our first USA tour and it's been quite a dream run for us. We have played 15 shows across the east and west coast cities. We were the visiting artists for the Berklee Indian Ensemble in Boston and have collaborated with them for one of our compositions (video coming soon). We also collaborated with multi instrumentalist Karsh Kale for our set in Brooklyn, and one of our inspirations, sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar came to watch the performance. We got the opportunity to play our music on a Steinway grand piano at our most recent show in Seattle, and also played at the prestigious Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. We've played at varied settings including performance theaters, clubs, universities, music festivals, piano stores, and house concerts. We plan to be back very soon, hopefully within the year. For an independent artist like us, this tour is a big milestone in our careers.
What has been your observation on understanding of Indian classical amongst American audiences.
We felt that the audience members were listening to us with a lot of focus and were observing every minute detail of each piece. A lot of them spoke to us about specific songs at the end of the set, even though they may not understand the Hindi language. They identified with the essence and emotion of the songs, while enjoying the Indian classical elements and influences. We feel like there are certain expectations of Indian (classical) artists around the world, and we are happy to present our identity as independent contemporary - classical artists in global platforms. What definitely impressed us was the listening culture and etiquette, where inspite of large or small numbers in each performance, every single person gave us their full attention and support. We never felt like background music, in any of the shows. We are still in the process of developing that culture back home.
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