There will soon be a rare opportunity to hear the classical music of India live.
On Saturday, Gaurang Doshi and several other musicians will present a concert of Indian music in Brendle Recital Hall at Wake Forest University.
The program, titled "Peace," will showcase the sarod and the sitar, both of which are similar in shape to a lute but produce more sustained and drone-like sounds, as well as tabla, tuned percussion instruments that are played with fingers and palms.
Doshi, a native of India who lives in Winston-Salem, will solo on the sarod. He's a software engineer who once worked for Hanesbrands but now works for the state. And several other musicians, including students who study with Doshi in Winston-Salem, will be featured in an orchestra of sarods, sitars and guitars.
"We are holding on to the purest form of Indian classical music," Doshi said. "This has been there since centuries. It has been passed from one generation to another. It's not like … disco, which was popular, reaches its peak and then people forget that."
Doshi stresses that neither he nor his kindred musicians perform at places where people eat and drink.
"We want our music only in concert, education institutions and religious places," he said. "We want our music to be respected, to be listened to, appreciated and, even, if needed, to be criticized. But we don't want it to be ignored."
Know nothing about the classical music of India?
One way to enhance your appreciation might be through mathematics. That's because a piece is typically played three times in a cycle of varying numbers of beats, requiring division skills.
"(Say) you want to play a piece three times in that 16-beat cycle," Doshi said. "How do you do that? How do you divide 16 by 3? How do you divide 7 by 3? How do you divide 10 by 3? There are equations for this."
Jim Robertson, one of Doshi's students, will also perform on the sarod during "Peace," having made time for that instrument in addition to several western string instruments that he teaches privately in Virginia.
He said he first encountered the classical music of India through Ravi Shankar, a sitar player who helped popularize Indian classical music in the west beginning in the 1960s.
"I was intrigued with the sound of the music," Robertson said, explaining what appeals to him about Indian music. "It is thoroughly improvised in some ways and very structured in others."
To Robertson, Indian music sounds both familiar and different at the same time, its foundation based not on 12 tones but many more microtones.
"The melodic structures are somewhat alien to our western ears," he said. "They're not alien to the point where we turn them off.… India music is different. It is accessible in that it resolves itself to tones that are accessible to our ears."
kkeuffel@wsjournal.com | 727-7337
"Peace" will be presented Saturday at 7 p.m. in Brendle Recital Hall at Wake Forest University. Tickets are $10 at the door, $6 for seniors, children 6 to 12 and WFU students. Tickets may be bought in advance for $8 at Golden India Restaurant, 2837 Fairlawn Drive; Krankies Coffee, 211 E. Third St.; Separk Music, 636 W. Fourth St.; and Jackson's Music, 1409 S. Stratford Road. For more information, call 231-3473 or visit sarodsitar.com.
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