Report by OD bureau, Bhubaneswar: The Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) is currently organising the Virasat series of programs in Odisha.

Following the grand success of the National Convention held ilast year at Ravenshaw University, SPIC MACAY Odisha chapter has lined up a series of top quality programs covering a gamut of art-forms from across the country and abroad to be held in various educational institutions in the state. Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia inaugurated the Virasat series with two concerts at the Temple City Institute and NISER. This was followed by a Odissi recital by Vidushi Sujata Mishra at IIIT in Bhubaneswar.

The Virasat series will continue with the performances of Renowned exponent of the ancient art form of Langa Mangeniar folk art of Rajastan led by Sri Gazi Khan & troupe will be performed in SPIC MACAY chapters of Odisha from 17th Sept to 22nd September.

Entertainment Desk-Jaisalmer, (PTI) Call him the Mozart of Jaisalmer or even this desert city’s Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his music has all the elements that will certainly not let you down. Be it belting famous folk songs like ‘Nimbooda’, ‘Mast qalandar’, ‘Phadharo mhare des’ and ‘Holiya mein ure re gulal’ or composing a symphony, Gazi Khan Barna is quite as ease. Khan and his troupe use diverse instruments like ‘algoza’ (an indigenous flute), ‘khartaal’ (a percussion instrument made of wood) and ‘morchang’ (mouth organ) besides harmonium, sarangi and dholak to create pulsating music in the inhospitable desert terrain. Khan has to credit 100 performances aboard. And now he wants to have some collaborative associations with the country’s top musicians including Oscar-winning A R Rahman.

They will perform at Bakul, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, KMBB College of Engineering and Technology, HDF School of Mangement, KIIT University, Loyola School, XIMB, Loyola School, SAI International School and Synergy in Bhubaneswar, and also in Synergy campus at Dhenkanal.

SPIC MACAY seeks to conserve and promote an awareness of this rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry amongst the youth of this country through focus on the classical arts, with their attendant legends, rituals, mythology and philosophy and to facilitate an awareness of their deeper and subtler values. SPIC MACAY was established in 1977 by the effort of Padmashri (Dr.) Kiran Seth of IIT Delhi which now has its presence in over 300 chapters across the country and abroad, It organises over 3000 programs a year and has plans to expand its activities widely so as to reach out to every child in the country by year 2020.

SPIC MACAY is undertaking a nation wide film screening festival in hundreds of schools and colleges on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti. The films featured would be Attenborough's Gandhi and Shyam Benegal's 'Making of the Mahatma'.