Shawn Mativetsky

This past Saturday, August 3, I accompanied bansuri player Chloé Bennett for her Indian music début in her hometown of Montreal. She has been living in India for the past five years, studying with legendary bansuri maestro, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. She is currently in town for a few weeks, visiting her family, and so we took this opportunity to set up a couple of concerts for her.

This first concert took place at the Sivananda Yoga Centre in downtown Montreal. The concert was really well attended, as many of Chloé's friends and family have never heard her play Indian music before. It was a very special occasion and Chloé did really well, engaging the audience with both her words and her music. She opened with raag Malkauns, with an alap-jor, followed by compositions in Jhaptaal and Teentaal. I particularly enjoyed the Jhaptaal composition; it's one of those that really sticks in your head, even hours after the performance. The Teentaal was a bit odd, as the melody began on khali, and so had a feeling of being flipped around backwards (this is not unusual). She then followed with raag Bageshri in Rupak, a thumri in Pilu, and then a Bengali folk song to conclude.

We were accompanied by flutist and bansuri player Marie Saintonge, which was a very welcome surprise for me.

Chloé on bansuri, with Marie on tanpura.

If you missed this concert, there is still another chance to hear Chloé before she heads back to India. We will be playing at H-OM Yoga in Vaudreuil-Dorion (3187 Harwood), on Friday, August 23 at 8pm.