For this appointment with South Asian cultured music, the Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies has invited the Indian singer Manjiri Asanare Kelkar, one of the greatest contemporary exponents of khyal, the most widespread classical vocal genre of North India today. The khyal (whose name, derived from the Persian, can be translated as “imagination”) places the emphasis on the singer’s creative ability to improvise melodies based on ragas, the modal structures of Indian classical music. Manjiri’s training began under the guidance of his father, the well-known tablist Anand Asanare, and then continued with Madhusudan Kanetkar, a refined exponent of the Jaipur stylistic school, and – more recently – with the famous singer Kishori Amonkar. In her first performance in Italy, Manjiri Asanare Kelkar will be accompanied – as is usual in the khyal – by a harmonium player and, on percussion, by a tablist. To precede the concert, on July 6, a scientific study meeting will be organized during which, in live streaming, Laura Leante, professor of ethnomusicology at Durham University will interview Manjiri Asanare Kelkar on the practice of Indian khyal singing in the Jaipur tradition.
