PERFORMING ARTS

-- Matt Schudel

India Independence Concert

Several of India's star musicians and dancers appeared at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Thursday to celebrate their homeland's 60th anniversary of independence. The performers served as embellishments to an awards ceremony sponsored by the CineMaya Media Group to recognize those who have contributed significantly to U.S.-India relations.

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma first took the floor, sitting with a sizable zither-style instrument. After demonstrating the delicate fine-tuning of his instrument's 100 strings, he opened with an Indian folk tune, using a subtle array of strokes as he unwound a series of complex melodic patterns. Along with accompanying instruments (relatives of traditional Indian long-necked lutes and hand-held barrel drums), the players engaged with each other intensely, as if in a classical jazz band, gradually increasing in dynamics, tempo and emotional levels to the climax. A piece that followed was equally sophisticated structurally but gentler in effect.

Dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj gave a ravishing display of his technical prowess, which centered on the arms, hands and feet. In a fast-paced delivery of myriad gestures and movements about the stage, every action suggested a symbolic representation -- of animals given human feelings, for example, or people locked in spirited conversations. He was joined later by an equally accomplished, but unidentified, female partner.

The voices of Balamurali Krishna, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty and a small group of instrumentalists ended the evening's stellar performances with classical North and South Indian fusion songs. Prominent features of their music included elaborate echo effects and highly elaborate melodies sliding between micro-intervals foreign to Western ears. The instruments supported the singers with continually droning bass notes -- in bagpipe fashion.

-- Cecelia Porter