Darjeeling Tea Festival A Tribute to the Beatles

(From Times of India)DARJEELING: As the city folks celebrate Christmas, city boy and renowned Western classical musician and violinist Abraham Mazumdar will be busy in the Hills, paying tribute to The Beatles . Come December 25 and Mazumdar and his group Kolkata Music Academy Chamber Orchestra will present a fusion of Beatles songs on an open stage at Chowrasta.

The organizing committee of the Darjeeling Tea and Tourism Festival (DTTF) has roped in the artiste to celebrate 50 years of the English rock band.



The Kolkata Music Academy Chamber Orchestra, which Mazumdar had founded in 1983, will perform on the occasion.

"We had approached Mazumdar to participate in the DTTF this year. We had expressed our intention to celebrate 50 years of Beatles and it was Mazumdar who came up with the idea to play Beatles song by fusing orchestra with contemporary electric music. Our idea is to pay tribute to the band that played a key role in changing certain aspects of our lives through their songs," said Vikram Rai, DTTF joint secretary.

Mazumdar had also performed Tagore in Symphony in Germany in April, 2012, on invitation from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra along with compositions by the great masters of European classical music. He also conducted a tribute concert of "Mohiner Ghoraguli", India's first rock band, in 2008 in Kolkata.

Talking about the collaboration, Rai added: "Darjeeling is known for its music, especially in the Western genre. In this regard, most of our musicians have in some way been influenced by The Beatles. Secondly, very few from the Hills are exposed to classical concerts and orchestra. This will be a major attraction of the 17-day festival."

In fact, the DTTF committee has also organized Battle of the Bands, a musical contest where bands from Shillong, Sikkim, Kolkata and the Hills region will take part. "We would like to emulate Kohima's Hornbill Festival," said Rajeev Thattal, the music coordinator of DTTF.

Bands that will perform in the contest include Kolkata's Parikrama, Sikkim's Still Waters, Robin, New Revolution and Shillong's Lou Majaw.

Local old-timer Prism, which has shifted base to Nepal, will also participate. This apart, the organizing committee is eyeing to break the world record by making 700 guitarists play the song "Imagine" at one go.