Much to the cheer for the city’s music connoisseurs, the 8th annual edition of Samarpan Music Festival will begin here from Friday offering an array of spiritual and devotional music. The three-day event is being hosted by city-based six-decade-old Bhubaneswar Music Circle (BMC).
“The only of its kind in Odisha, the BMC has been hosting monthly music concerts and annual music festivals in Bhubaneswar for many years in its sole mission of promotion of Indian classical music and its awareness among the people of the State. Alongside the two major music traditions of India - Hindustani and Carnatic - BMC has been consistently trying to highlight Odishi as a major Indian classical music tradition. In recent years, we have expanded our objective and are trying to highlight other genres of music. The Samarpan Music Festival featuring Sufi and other devotional music traditions was the outcome of BMC’s expanded outlook,” explained its general secretary Khirod Patnaik.
Since its launch in 2013, the festival has been gaining greater demand with each passing year for its message of universal love and brotherhood. Observing its appeal, the Department of Tourism of the Odisha Government has come ahead as its promoter, he added.
The inaugural evening on Friday will feature New Delhi based Ghazal, Sufi and Bhajan singer Jitendra Singh who hails from Jammu and Kashmir. His Sufi musings concert will be followed by “Music of the Soul from Bengal” by immensely popular Baul singer Parvathy Baul who has been decorated with the coveted Sangeet Natak Akademi Award recently.
The second evening of the festival will commence with “Bhajans of Bhakta Salabega”, the celebrated Muslim devotee of Lord Jagannath, by eminent Odishi musician Guru Ramhari Das. His concert would be followed by “Kabir Vani” featuring bhajans of Saint Kabir by Mooralala Marvada, a popular Sufi folk singer from Kutch region of Gujarat.
The third and final evening of the event would showcase Sufi kalams by Suresh Kumar Sethi from New Delhi who works as a staff artist with the Song and Drama Division of Government of India and Sufi qawwali presentation by a seven-member troupe from Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh led by Jenab Saleem Hasan Chisti.