In seven memorable and touching original compositions, Rita Sahai's latest CD brings melodious rejuvenation to the eloquent message and heartfelt devotion of the legendary Indian poet-saint Meera (mirabai); featuring Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri on tabla.

8 MP3 Songs
WORLD: Asian, WORLD: World Traditions



Details:
Born in Allahabad India, Rita Sahai was accepted at the age of nine as a disciple of renowned vocalist, Pandit Rama Shankar Mishra who groomed her in the romantic Benares Gharana style. After coming to the United States Rita continued her studies under the world famous sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan where she trained in the Seni Allaudin Gharana style known for its creativity and purity of ragas. Impressed by her talent and passion towards music, Khan Sahib has given her the title âGayan Alankarâ (Jewell of Music).

Rita, an acclaimed composer and performer, tours extensively throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and India. She is also in demand at recording studios at home and abroad where she graciously lends her voice to many diverse musical projects including laying down vocal trax for Grammy Award winning blue grass artist Bella Fleck and performing on Alonzo Kings Sacred Texts, a CD of international music that won the Isadora Duncan award for music excellence. Rita has also performed live music for Alonzo Kingâs Lines Ballet and in May 2007, will perform with the North Carolina Dance Company.

She has produced several CDs of her own, one of which, Rangamalika, was considered as a Grammy nomination in 2003.

In the two decades that she has been in the United States, Rita has served as an ambassador of India's rich musical heritage. Through workshops and lectures she has reached out to the larger non-Indian community and educated them in the intricacies of Hindustani music. She conducts classes all over the Bay Area, from Sacramento and Berkeley to Fremont and San Jose. Her students come from varied musical backgrounds. For her Indo-American students, Rita's classes are a way of reconnecting to the art and culture of their mother country.

You are invited to join ongoing classes:â¨â¢ Fremontâ¨â¢ Berkeley â¨â¢ Haywardâ¨â¢ Sacramentoâ¨â¢ San Franciscoâ¨â¢ Beginners, Intermediate, Advancedâ¨â¢ New Children's Classes in Fremont

Rita is available for:â¨â¢ CONCERT APPEARANCES â¨â¢ LECTURE WORKSHOPS â¨â¢ SEMINARS â¨â¢ MUSIC DEMONSTRATIONS AT COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS

RECENT PRESS RELEASE:
August 10, 2006
Press contact: Selby Schwartz
selby@linesballet.org
415.863.3040 ext 224

Alonzo Kingâs LINES Ballet Announces New Project with Rita Sahai:

Alonzo Kingâs Lines Ballet will feature the music of Hindustani vocalist Rita Sahai in a new work that will be part of the program for the Fall Home Season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (Nov 3-5, 8-11). The piece, which will include live music played by North Indian musicians, will have its premiere Sept 30th at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Rita Sahai has been designated a âJewel of Musicâ and nominated for a Grammy Award; her previous collaboration with Alonzo Kingâs LINES Ballet earned an Izzie Award in Music. Production and costumes will be designed by Robert Rosenwasser, Associate Artistic Director, with noted lighting designer Robert Wierzel creating the lighting for the piece.

Songs Like Dreams: An Interview with Rita Sahai

âMusic is part of me,â says Rita Sahai simply. âSometimes Iâm sleeping and music comes into my headâand itâs so beautiful. I think that I am writing it down, and then I wake up in the morning and I have only been sleeping.â Born into a musical family in Allahabad, India, Rita Sahai began training as a vocalist when she was nine years old. She studied first with Pandit Rama Shankar Mishra, a renowned singer in the Benares Gharana style who hap¬pened to live in her town. Even at that age, her gift for Hindustani music was recognized. When she asked her teachers for guidance, they all replied with the same advice: âDonât give up. Just keep singing.â

Years later, after the sarod master Ustad Ali Akbar Khan has named her a âJewel of Music,â and her album of Hori Festival songs, titled Rangamalika, has been nominated for a Grammy Award, Rita Sahai continues to dedi¬cate herself to music. She practices several hours a day in her home in Berkeley, singing classical and light classical ragas from North India. She enjoys Hindustani (or North Indian) music in particular, she explains, because the vocalist is âfree to create,â while the tabla player who accompanies her keeps the rhythm. âWith a tabla player, I am free, I let go of the beat, and he is keeping the rhythm for me,â she says, âThen I can come home again, because the tabla is like coming home in a song.â She often works with musicians whose instruments compliment her voice âlike a shadow,â especially tabla, violin, harmonium, and flute. âSometimes with a shadow, depending on the angle and where it falls, it becomes very long or very short, or even very hazyâbut it follows me!â she says with a smile.

Her first experience working with Alonzo King and LINES Ballet came in 1996, on the ballet Sacred Text, which won an Isadora Duncan Award for music. Remembering her feelings about performing with LINES Ballet, Rita Sahai recalls being struck by Alonzo Kingâs spontaneity and creativity. In fact, during the sound check, she was humming a different song than the one intended for the score of Sacred Text, when Alonzo King came up to her and began to listen. âYes, do this one!â he said, and so the raga she had casually chosen âjust a song she felt like singing, while the theater crew fine-tuned the sound systemâwas integrated into the score, which went on to receive that yearâs âIzzieâ Award.

Rita Sahai describes the feeling when her inspiration arrives as âsomething special, coming from my heart. When a writer writes a book, it is because he has something to say; it is the same with music for me.â When she begins to develop songs for a piece with Alonzo Kingâs LINES Ballet, the musical process is intimately related to the cho¬reographic one. âI need to see the dance first,â she says thoughtfully. âEven a little bit of it. Then I can create.â In addition to giving concerts of ragas of many different stylesâdevotional thumri, political and popular bhajans, monsoon-inspired classical songs, romantic and seasonal ragas, etc.âshe teaches Hindustani vocal music to a broad range of students, including those in the Ethnomusicology graduate program at UC Davis. âI like to teach my students: true feelings,â Rita Sahai explains. âItâs very heart-warming, heart-touching, to feel the music. You must fall in love with each note... and then these notes will come dancing to you.â

âSelby Schwartz