Date:30/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/30/stories/2008013050750200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Musician’s tryst with ‘ragas’

Staff Reporter

Hoffman plays Hindustani

Concert will be held at Kalabharathi tomorrow
He uses ’koto’ to render Indian tunes

VISAKHAPATNAM: Here’s good news for music lovers of the port city. They have a rare opportunity to hear a US-born musician, who is presently teaching classical music in Japan, presenting Indian classical music.

The music concert by T.M. Hoffman is being jointly presented by Nippon Care-Fit Service Association (NCSA) India and Lebenshilfe, a special school for the mentally challenged at Kalabharathi auditorium on Thursday.

He presented a glimpse of his talent at a media conference on Tuesday. He uses the stringed instrument ‘koto’ (a Japanese musical instrument) to render North Indian classical music (Hindustani).

He plays the veena, the santoor and the violin on the simple instrument to produce authentic tunes. He also plays the Japanese flute ‘shakuhachi’, which also doubles up as a tabla, to produce melodious ragas.

The Bhatkhande Music College, Lucknow, awarded the Visharad degree on Hoffman in 1991 and the use of shakuhachi and koto for expression of ragas was found fully suitable after extensive musical research and through public performances and workshops in India.

Hoffman is presently on a tour of India giving performances on a Senior Performing and Creative Arts Fellowship 2006-07 of the American Institute of Indian Studies under the Indo-Japanese Music Exchange Association.

As part of the project he had visited Delhi and Lucknow and held consultations with affiliated institutions and collaborating artistes and educators, donated the koto instrument to Indian institutions, held workshops, prepared vocal accompaniment items and has been giving public performances during the last three years.

For better relations

Recalling his experiences in Asia during the last 35 years, Mr. Hoffman regretted that the West was losing a lot of developments on the cultural front. He felt that the music concerts could foster better understanding between the North and South India.

Honorary president of NCSA, India T. Saraswathi Devi, Founder and director of NCSA, India T.H. Manuel and ‘A’ grade Veena artiste T. Padmini were present.