Popular sarod players Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan performed at the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music here to a packed auditorium of Chinese and Indian music lovers, students and professors.
The audience applauded the flow and the pauses as the two performed two “ragas” and one medley of folk songs from Assam and Bengal, mixing with “Raghupati Raghava” and Rabindranath Tagore’s “Ekla Cholo Re”.
The session was interactive, with Amaan and Ayaan sharing nuances of the “ragas”. The duo explained how they have to keep “filing” their nails to hit the right strains on the sarod strings, much to the amusement of the audience.
It is rare to see an Indian classical music performance in China. That’s mostly because Hindi music finds easy takers among the Chinese. Also, compared to the US and certain European countries, the Indian diaspora here is small.
These probably were the reasons why the two well-travelled brothers performed in China only for the first time last week.
The brothers took part in two music workshops with students and teachers of Chinese classical music, taking tentative steps towards future dialogue and exchanges between musicians from the two countries.