NEWS | AN EVENING OF INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH STEVE GORN AND BENJY WERTHEIMER

Friday, March 9, 2012
7:30 pm
The Movement Center Meditation Hall
Tickets $15 advance/$20 at the door

Join us for a evening of ragas from the Hindustani classical music tradition as well as folk melodies from North India featuring bansuri flute virtuoso Steve Gorn and multi-instrumentalist Benjy Wertheimer.

Steve Gorn

Steve has performed and recorded with such artists and luminaries as Paul Simon, Richie Havens, Paul Winter, Jack DeJohnette, Glen Velez, and many others. Deepak Chopra, Krishna Das, Coleman Barks, Jai Uttal, Jerome Robbins, and Julie Taymor are among those who have sought out his virtuoso bamboo flute. He has composed for film, television, dance and theatre, and performed in concerts and festivals throughout the world, drawing from classical Indian, jazz and world music to create a distinctive signature sound. 

Steve eloquently describes his experience in the following quote: "to stop time...and bring people to that sacred space where heart and mind meet...that's my goal...that's my music."

An award-winning musician, composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist equally accomplished on tabla, congas, percussion, esraj, guitar, and keyboards, Benjy Wertheimer has toured and recorded with such artists as Krishna Das, Deva Premal and Miten, Jai Uttal, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, virtuoso guitarist Michael Mandrell, and renowned bamboo flute master G. S. Sachdev. He has also opened for such well-known artists as Carlos Santana, Paul Winter, and Narada Michael Walden.

Benjy is a founding member of the internationally acclaimed world fusion ensemble, Ancient Future. Beginning his musical studies at age 5, starting with piano and later violin and flamenco guitar, he has studied Indian classical music for over 30 years with some of the greatest masters of that tradition, including Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan and Z. M. Dagar. For many years, (along with the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart) Benjy was a contributing composer and member of the Zakir Hussain Rhythm Experience.

"When I listen to Benjy play ... it takes me beyond the Beyond."
- John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga.

"Words fall at the feet of this music as we enter into the beauty that lifts us into ourselves. We find a home here, a place to rest and a haven from the storms on the ocean of this world. This is not just music, this is prayer."
- Krishna Das (in a review of Benjy's "Soul of the Esraj" CD)

About Indian Classical Music

Indian classical music is a meeting of Raga (melody) and Tala (rhythm). Raga means, "to color the mind," and traditionally, each raga, or melodic landscape, is associated with a time of day, a season or a quality of light. Tala, is rhythm...time, defined and elaborated in rhythmic cycles. Evolved over centuries from music performed in temples and courts, present day Indian classical music is a true 'chamber music.'

This music is passed from generation to generation, from master to disciple, as a living oral tradition. It combines the classicism of traditional repertoire, fixed melodic forms, and precise intonation, with improvisation and spontaneous creation. 

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