Hindustani Vocal Concert
Hemang Mehta
Sunday, September 12th, 2010 @ 5:00 PM
Venue:
Ethical Society Hall
9001 Clayton Road
St. Louis, MO 63117
Tickets: $15 General, $10 Students
Free for Sangeetha Members
Profile
Born on 16th October, Hemang Mehta comes from a family of Gujarati businessmen, steeped in culture, religion and music. Soothing strands of music fell on his ears from infancy, ever since he can remember. Inspiration came from the priceless music played around him of Padmabhushan Pandit Jasrajji. He received intense training from his Guru Sri Chandrashekhar Swamy under the strict guidance of Pandit Jasrajji as a result of day to day association with the maestro. Inspiration turned into ambition under the encouragement given by his parents. This ambition to reach the pinnacles of our rich musical heritage in turn, sparked off a burning desire to get high class training and untiring “riyaz” right from the tender age of nine .
Hemang’s family’s deep love for Indian music has allowed him to devote himself passionately in the pursuit of music as a career. Hemang’s music is an extension of his personality and philosophy viz. to reach out to God through singing, as he truly believes in ‘Naad Bramha’. This is why Hemang practices a very high degree of professional ethics.
A product of the time tested ‘Guru- Shishya Parampara’ but imaginative and creative enough to exploit the freedom within discipline, innovation within tradition, which is what our music is really about, this sincere young man strikes a most appealing balance between intellectual sensitivity and aesthetic creativity. Thus, he is most highly emotive and communicative.
Hemang excels in the high watermarks of the ‘Mewati Gharana’ such as ‘meend, layakari, kan-gayaki’ and proper bandish presentation. He has several awards to his credit such as the ‘Surmani’ award. He has performed widely in India as well as abroad, at prestigious festivals and has received a good press all over.