Monk on a mission

The Capital’s beloved suburban cousin will bathe in the charms of traditional Indian sounds at a week-long music festival to be held next month. And helming the fiesta will be famed musicians and vocalists from the Indian classical music fraternity.

Now this one’s a first for Noida. The Capital’s beloved suburban cousin will bathe in the charms of traditional Indian sounds at a week-long music festival to be held next month. And helming the fiesta will be famed musicians and vocalists from the Indian classical music fraternity.

The Noida Winter Carnival, as it’s tentatively named, will feature artists such as Ustad Sultan Khan, Sumitra Guha, Neel Ranjan Mukherjee, and Pandit Debu and Prateek Chaudhary, among others. “Through this fest, we wish to introduce music enthusiasts from a particular zone to different forms of Indian traditional as well as contemporary music. Starting with Noida, the seven-day extravaganza will move to other parts of Delhi in the months to come,” says Kapil Srivastava, founder of Guitar Monk, a company that promotes musical talent.

The fest will have shows dedicated to a different genre each day. “There’ll be special nights for thumri, ghazal, percussion and fusion. We’ll also focus on the different gharanas of classical music as well as shows paying tribute to legendary film composers,” he says. Through the fest, he aims to educate the masses about our musical heritage as well as the role music plays in one’s overall development.