Asha Seattle Diwali Concert 2010 - Details and Directions

You are invited to Asha Diwali Morning Concert 2010

by Vibhuti Kavishwar and Gaurav Chanda
Accompanied by Manoj Biswas (Tabla), Anjali Joshi (Harmonium)

Co Sponsored by Pratidhwani

Suggested donation: $10/person to 'Asha Seattle'

Host: Asha Seattle

Location: Microsoft Building 86/2835(Auditorium)
4500 156th Ave NE, Redmond WA 98052 US
Find the directions, maps and parking suggestions at the end of this post. We will escort guests at venue entrance.

When: Sunday, November 7, 10:00AM to 12:00PM
We request you to be there by 9.45AM - we plan to start the concert at 10.00AM

Join us for Classical Musical Diwali Celebrations...Colorful decorations, twinkling lights, friends and family, food delicacies, enthusiastic atmosphere and great music.

This is our 2nd Diwali concert. Last year's concert was made possible by graceful performance from Dr. Sharad Gadre. He is no longer with us, but his wish to make this event a long lasting tradition in our region has inspired us to make it an official annual Asha event. We feel that we will truly honor and remember Dr. Gadre by continuing a tradition that he started last year.

We certainly hope to see you there.

Snacks and tea will be available for purchase.

RSVP requested -

Your RSVP is requested as we have limited number of seats available at the venue. It will also be helpful for organizers to know how many people are expected to attend the event.

Please click the evite link below and respond in the reply box.

http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/EZNJLNBOYAYHEBYRLOPZ/AshaDiwaliConcert2010

You will also find the contact email and phone numbers for the organizers at the evite.


Directions/Parking -
Click on the link below to open google map for the venue.

4500 156th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052

Once you come to 156th Ave NE, you will need to enter the Microsoft Campus using NE 45th Street entrance.

Here is a map indicating the parking, auditorium and roads to follow.

Parking should be done in G88, Building 88 garage (shown in dark green on the map)

Direction to the parking lot (shown in violet on the map)

From 156th Ave NE, go west on NE 45th St.

Turn right at the T junction.

Take a slight right turn to park in G88.

Directions from the parking lot to the auditorium (shown in orange on the map)

Use the South-East exit to come out of the parking lot. (The board near the exit says Stairs to Bldg 84, 85 and 87. But don't take the stairs. Simply open the glass door next to the stairs to come out.)

Come straight to the Building 86 cafeteria door (shown in brown on the map). Escorts will be present near this door to lead you to Auditorium.

Artists Performing for Asha Diwali Morning Concert 2010

Vibhuti Kavishwar

Vibhuti has been learning music from her father since the early age of 5. Coming from a musical family, she is a holder of Sangeet Vishaarad (B.Mus) degree in Hindustani classical vocal .She has taken lessons from Late Shri Sharad Gadre and Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty. She is presently taking lessons from Srivani Jade. Vibhuti has given performances with the musical group Swarvedh in India and is now a member of many musical groups in Seattle. She recently won Swarangan a Singing contest organized by eprasaran for people in North America.Her biggest audience so far has been around 50,000 during the function Maharashtra Kesari in Nagpur. Apart from singing she is Cosmetic Engineer by profession and loves dancing & painting.

Gaurav Chanda

Gaurav Chanda began his musical training at the age of seven from Smt. Anita Roy. He then learnt from Smt. Shanti Sharma for a considerable period of time at the Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, New Delhi where he developed a Kirana-Indore style of khayal gayaki. Since he moved to Seattle in 2005, he has been learning from Shri. Sharad Gadre, who has helped him imbibe rich Gwalior traditions in his music. Gaurav holds degrees in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and IIT-Delhi. He works as a software developer for Amazon.com.

Anjali Joshi

Anjali Joshi is well known in the Seattle area as a solo Santoor artist; as an accompanist on harmonium to vocal and tabla artists ; as a music teacher for different instruments; as the founder and lead of her music group Vadya Vrinda; and as the music director of the Children's Orchestra, Yuva Mehfil.
Anjali started learning music on Harmonium at age 9 with Warana Children's Orchestra in India. She played various instruments in the orchestra such as Jal Tarang, Hawaiian Guitar, Organ, Mandolin etc. under the guidance of her guru Shri Shankarrao Kulkarni.
For the last few years, she has concentrated her energies on Santoor. Anjali uses her own modified version of chromatic style of tuning the Santoor.
Anjali has performed solo and with orchestras, on numerous occasions at various places, in India and the US. She has also accompanied many renowned vocalists and tabla soloists on harmonium.
Besides being a performer, Anjali teaches musical instruments to students of all ages. She is a faculty of the Seattle Indian Music Academy.
For music classes information, please contact her at anjalij@gmail.com.

Manoj Biswas

Manoj Biswas is a promising Tabla player based in Seattle. He began his studies in Tabla under Sri. Kuntal Roy, a student of Pt. Shankar Ghosh in 1991. Subsequently, after his move to Seattle in 2000 he has continued his studies under Smt. Annie Penta, and with the young virtuoso Sri. Vishal Nagar. He performs regularly in Seattle and the northwest as an accompanist for both classical and light music programs. He holds a master's degree in Computer Science and is presently employed as a software engineer at Microsoft Corporation.

Asha Diwali Concert - How did it all start last year ...

It began with a simple psyched up phone call from my friend Jyoti – She asked if we wanted to organize a Diwali Morning Classical Music Concert for benefit of Asha.

I was excited at once and suspicious at the same time about the ‘how to’ aspects of the organization including ‘who is going to sing on such short notice’.

With Diwali merely a month away, I suggested that we take a survey to find out if people like the idea at all and will they be willing to come … so we sent a survey asking people if they would like to participate in Diwali morning concert. We got response from about 80 people and 8/10 willing volunteers – and more importantly from Gadre Kaka.

He wrote in the email that “Diwali morning concert is an excellent idea and could be the start of an enduring tradition.” He also expressed his willingness to sing for the concert.

It began there and escalated to a mad dash to organize the concert with just 25 days for preparation until the day of the concert :) We sent out the first survey on Sept 23, 2009 and had the concert on Saturday, Oct 17, 2009.

Things were happening so fast, it felt totally crazy and it was a lot of work for sure - but that is one of the best Diwalis that I have spent...as if it was by magic, out of nowhere the volunteer team came together and played their part to make things work ... it would not have been possible without that kind of magic within such short time :)

Working together with the volunteer team for such good cause is a lot of fun and brings out a happiness that is difficult to put in words ... it is simply amazing... you will need to experience it yourself to know what it is ! :)

With the solid encouragement and blessings from Dr. Sharad Gadre, the concert was a huge success. On the basis of 'volunteer spirit for a good cause' from everyone - including artists, music system operators, volunteers and organizers, we raised $1160 for Asha out of the 2 hour concert. Pratidhwani graciously provided us their music system and the technicians to set up the system.

We did not sell any tickets for the concert but suggested a donation of 10 dollars per person for Asha and people gave much more than that.

The atmosphere was positively charged with good vibes and concert was a delightful experience for everyone.

This year we got the Diwali Concert approved to be an official annual Asha event. I think with that we have taken the first baby step towards making it a long lasting tradition in our region.

And once again the magic is happening ... We were scrambling to find artists when Gaurav decided to sing for the concert this year and brought in the 'performing team'. Shailendra has once again helped us to get the Pratidhwani music system for this year's concert. Prema helped us get the auditorium booking done at Microsoft ... and there are so many more volunteers that I want to thank that it is worth writing a separate post for that.

If you would like to take part in the volunteer effort for this event this year / in the future, let us know. We would love to have more volunteers added to our team ... more the merrier :)

Index for 'Asha Seattle Diwali Concert' Blog

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