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Carried Away On Flames; Virtuoso Violinist Comes To Town

Jack Morgan
Rick Henderson and his Sarod

It’s a concert that’s small in size but huge in scope. That distinctive sound of classical Hindustani (north Indian) music immediately takes you to a dreamy place.

“The gentleman named Indradeep Ghosh, a master violinist from north India, will be joining us for a concert Nov. 14.”

That’s Rick Henderson, who is producing the concert and playing the sarod, a lute-like instrument associated with classical Indian music. They will be playing what are called “duets.”

“Typically, a duet is two musicians playing a melodic instrument, and then of course, we always have the tabla drum, the Indian drum as the accompaniment, and the rhythmic element in that duet.”

The event will be held in conjunction with Solar San Antonio.

“The location is the William R. Sinkin Eco Centro, which is connected to the campus location of San Antonio College, which is hosting us here.”

I asked Henderson "Let’s say someone’s never heard Indradeep Ghosh’s music — how do you describe it?"

“Mesmerizing! Indradeep is a first class representative of the tradition of Hindustani north Indian classical music, which is a [form of] music that has a lot of intricacy and structure to it, but even if you’re not necessarily aware of that structure, it has a beauty of presentation and a detail and an excitement of rhythm that tends to captivate everyone.”

I told him that when I hear Indian music I always think of the Beatles song — "what is it? ‘Relax your mind and float downstream’”?

“That’s not a bad approach. My first inspiration was ‘Within You, Without You’ which was a George Harrison song, which was on the 'Sgt. Pepper' album.

He says San Antonio should be happy Ghosh is coming our way.

“It is wonderful that Indian musicians and Arabic musicians and musicians from different countries and different cultures are coming to Texas.”

And this final thought from his sarod teacher.

“Any music in tune, and in rhythm, is good for your soul.”

We’ve more on Friday’s concert here.

There's more on Indradeep Ghosh here.

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Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii