Indian culture shared at World Festival / Houston

The Houston Community College (HCC) in Houston, Texas, USA hosted a World Festival at its Southeast campus. As a part of this festivity on March 30, 2005 Swaralayam Arts Forum (SAF) of Houston presented a programme on Indian culture.

R. Ravi Iyer, the Founder-Director of SAF presented an interactive pictorial slide presentation on Indian culture. The cultural aspects focused on religion, music, dance, dculpture, dress, food, and language and popular tourist places in India.

Artistes of SAF, Rajarajeshwary Bhat, the vocalist along with her musical team consisting of SAF violinists Shriram Sarvotham and Sripriya Sriram, mridangist Srikrishna Muralidharan and tamboorist Priya Swaminathan presented a music concert. The kalpanaswaras for Vatapi ganapatim in Hamsadwani, the rendering of Thyagaraja’s Lalgudi Pancharatnam kriti - Lalithe in Bhairavi, the devotional Baro Krishnayya and GNB’s brisk thillana in Hamsanandi were well received.

Felipe Reyes, the Director of HCC’s World Festival thanked SAF and its performers for an enchanting evening presentation on Indian Culture and Carnatic Music and requested that they return each year to perform at HCC.

Many in the audience who were students, faculty and community members commented that this was a memorable experience for them.

Contact: E-mail: shrie@msn.com