On Saturday, October 15 at 7:00 pm Raghunath Manet will give a veena concert at the Saraswathi temple in Le Moule. Originally from Pondicherry, India, the 64-year-old artist who distinguishes himself in several disciplines as a singer, musician, dancer-choreographer, composer, writer, actor and filmmaker is described as a “magician of sound and senses”.
He has already performed on the most important European stages, including the Opéra-Bastille in Paris, the Shakespeare Globe in London and the Olympico Theater in Rome. Thirsty for cultural meetings, he has also played with great names such as Archie Shepp, Michel Portal, Didier Lockwood, Richard Galliano, Carolyn Carlson and Balamurali Krishna.
This concert will be an opportunity for Raghunath Manet – who masters the complexity of Indian rhythm and is considered one of the most innovative Indian musicians of the last decade – to perform tracks from his new album entitled “Veena Dreams” and released on the Plaza Mayor Company Ltd label. Through this record, the musician and his vînâ or veena (a traditional South Indian lute) take us into “a world of vision and fusion”. The artist wants his music, which is a mixture of tradition and modernity, to be beautiful and to deliver a universal message of peace between peoples. According to Raghunath Manet, “a tradition that is not reinterpreted, dies”.
Among all the awards he has received during his career, there is the Special Recognition Award “World Ambassador of Indian Music” awarded in 2018 at the Indywood Film Festival.
The Guadeloupean audience will also have the opportunity to appreciate Raghunath Manet’s dancing talent during his stay in the archipelago as he will lead two master classes of “bharata natyam” (a millennium old Tamil classical dance), on Saturday, October 15 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday, October 16 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
These artistic events of Raghunath Manet are organized as part of India Week in Guadeloupe and as part of the Divali, also called Diwali or Deepavali which will take place this year on Monday October 24 in India. Guadeloupe has seen waves of Indian immigration from 1854, for several years now, this festival of lights has been celebrated there. This was also the case in Martinique and the sister island will receive Raghunath Manet for a concert and a master class from October 18 to 20, 2022.
The “veena master” will perform in India from November 8 to 20 and then in Paris, from December 2 to 4, with the Brazilian star Gilberto Gil.
