By Rama K. Ramaswamy
Local artist and vocalist Maitreyee Chakraborty will be leading and performing "The Songs of East India Influenced By The Mystic Minstrels Or Bauls" at the Wellesley Community Center (WCC), at 219 Washington St., Wellesley, on Saturday, September 8, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. This concert will explore the philosophy of minstrels from East India, and English translations of the songs will be displayed. The concert features free admission and was supported in part by a grant from Wellesley and Natick Cultural Councils, as well as the WCC and The World of Wellesley (WOW). In addition to Chakraborty (vocal), the concert will feature Jewel Alam (keyboard), Subhankar Choudhury (tabla), Monami Roy (harmonium) and Suvadeep Sengupta (guitar).
Maitreyee Chakraborty has been learning vocal music since she was in grade school, and her parents were both big fans of the renowned Bengali poet and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore. “They instilled in me the love of the Bengali language and the love of Tagore, even before I fully understood the depth and breadth of his work,” she said. "Tagore adapted melodies from North Indian classical, Carnatic music, folk music of India, and even foreign tunes like waltz. I started performing in colleges, universities in presentation style and I was able to bridge the language gap with non-Indians. That gave me a lot of inspiration to be able to convey the beauty and profound philosophical concepts that are layered in his lyrics.
"I sing songs composed by Tagore and his contemporaries, like Atulprasad Sen, DL Roy, Nazrul and Rajanikanto,” Chakraborty said. “But Tagore's work is so vast and has such variety of topics that I keep coming back to him. His lyrics and melody not only appeals to me as a vocalist, but I have found guidance and solace and answers in his literature.”
Chakraborty performs in a lecture-demonstration style, with translations of lyrics in English. Her new album, which will feature a similar format with translations preceding each song, will make its debut in December 2019.
“This is only the second time we have had an Indian musical performance and we credit the work of The World of Wellesley for raising our community’s general awareness,” said WCC Executive Director Stephen Beach. “We hope to do more of these programs on top of the other music agendas we currently support.”
"The World of Wellesley's mission is 'Wellesley Welcomes,’” said WOW President Michelle Chalmers, “and programing such as this, and in partnership with the WCC, reflects our deep commitment towards supporting diversity and all cultures.”
