The Art of Peace, Alif Laila on Sitar
Alif Laila‘s Annual Art of Peace Concert
Celebrating Gandhiji’s birthday and contributions to peace
Sunday October 2, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church,
400 I Street, SW, Washington, DC
This event is FREE – RSVP to rsvp@dakshina.org.
Join us for our 8th Annual Fall Festival of Indian Arts and our 7th year of partnership with Alif. We are excited to have her back with us this Fall. Gracious and talented, she serves as a role model and mentor to Daniel.
Alif Laila was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her connection with the arts has been very deep since early childhood. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, she began her initial training in vocal music, and was eventually inspired to learn the Sitar by her mother, Shehida. She was trained on a ‘one to one’ basis in the techniques and compositions of classical music by Ustad Mir Qasem Khan, nephew of Ustad Allauddin Khan, and founder of the Senia Maihar school of music. Alif’s passion for the arts was beyond music alone. She attended the College of Fine Arts in Dhaka where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree and received several awards for her water color paintings. The world of rhythm and tone in drawing and painting gradually merged with her music and her love story with the arts began. She was fortunate to receive guidance from teachers like Partha Chatterjee and Krishna Bhatt and blessings from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. She has performed extensively in many prestigious venues in Bangladesh, India, Europe and the USA. World renowned Tabla artists like Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Ustad Taari Khan, and Pandit Yogesh Shamsi have performed and recorded with her. In 2007 her DVD ‘Hrydayaragam’ was presented at The Smithsonian. She has recently released another DVD, ‘Strings of Resonance’ with Anubrata Chatterjee, presenting Indian Classical music as the link to the heritage of the land from the past to the present.
With devotion and dedication Alif embraces the Sitar as the instrument of her soul.
To know more about her and watch her video-clips please visit her website: www.aliflailasitar.com and blog: aliflailasitar.blogspot.com.