“Vande Mataram: A Journey through India” is a concert journeying across the length and breadth of India through music. Sung in more than ten official Indian languages, the concert’s theme is India’s unity in diversity.

This musical journey features renowned singer Aruna Sairam, who is joined by noted instrumentalists Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan (mridangam), Rajeev Mukundan (violin), Amit Kavthekar (tabla), and Gaurav Mazumdar (sitar). Hailed for her ability to communicate the expressive essence of a song and her superb technical mastery, Sairam sings  Gurbani (traditional Sikh hymns) with as much ease as she renders a Bengali pop song. She is equally masterful at vocally interpreting the ancient writings of Narsinh Mehta, Kabir, and Gorakhnath. Her earliest repertoire includes renditions of the work of South Indian composer Thyagaraja and philosopher Purandara Dasa.

Asia Society is proud to present the concert in partnership with the Consulate General of India, New York. Vande Mataram is a rich tapestry of India through music and a celebration of India’s seventy-fifth anniversary of independence.

Artists’ Bios

Aruna Sairam is one of the most beloved luminaries of Indian vocal music. Acclaimed for her distinctive style and deeply moving performances, she has sold out countless concerts both in India and abroad. She is the recipient of several major Indian classical music honors, including the prestigious Padma Shri.

Sairam received early lessons in music from her mother Rajalakshmi Sethuraman and was later trained by T. Brinda, a sixth-generation musician of the eminent Court Musicians of Tanjore. Sairam has performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, Le Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Opéra National de Lyons, Royce Hall in Los Angeles, the Fès Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco, the International Oud Festival in Jerusalem, the Rashtrapati Bhavan (the Indian president’s official residence), and the Music Academy in India.

Regarded as an innovator in Indian music, she has performed with various European and African artists, including the Gregorian chant master Dominique Vellard, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, Bollywood singer Shankar Mahadevan, mandolin player U. Srinivas, and dancer Chandralekha.

Grammy-nominated virtuoso of the sitar, Gaurav Mazumdar, has performed Indian classical music, one of the world’s most ancient and sacred traditions, in venues across the globe.  He champions the preservation of the art form and tradition through his performances and educational initiatives. Like his guru, the legendary sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, Mazumdar is committed to expanding his art through cross-cultural exchange. He has performed with violinist Daniel Hope, worked with composer Philip Glass, and collaborated with Hermann Hesse’s family on the ballet Siddhartha. He is the only Indian artist to have performed at the Vatican. In 2002, he performed at the “Concert for George” for the late George Harrison in London.

Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee and Kalaimamani awardee Tiruvarur Vaidyanathan has shared the stage with established musical performers such as the instrumentalist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt; and singers M. Balamuralikrishna, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Bhimsen Joshi, Shahid Parvez,  Sudha Ragunathan, and Aruna Sairam. He has been organizing online performances through the Tiruvarur Tala Vadya Vidyalaya Trust and the Tiruvarur Vaidy School of Percussion and has broadcast more than eighty virtual concerts since the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago.

Vaidyanathan’s early training was under his grandfather, Tiruvarur Kunju Iyer, and his uncle, Tiruvarur Nagarajan. He continued under the tutelage of mridangam maestro Karaikudi Mani.

Amit Kavthekar started his study of tabla at the age of six—first with the legendary Alla Rakha and later with Zakir Hussain. Kavthekar has performed with numerous noted Indian classical musicians, including Zakir Hussain, Sivamani, Amjad Ali Khan, Shahid Parvez, Aashish Khan, Buddhadeb Das Gupta[CE1] , Shivkumar Sharma, and Jasraj. Kavthekar has also collaborated with the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, the band Sawaari, and western classical, jazz, and fusion musicians.

Carnatic violinist Rajeev Mukundan began taking violin lessons from N. Govindarajan and has since been under the guidance of Sangeetha Kalanidhi awardee A. Kanyakumari. An A-grade artist of All India Radio, Mukundan has traveled extensively, performing with his guru in several duets, accompanying other highly regarded artists, and participating in numerous unique musical collaborations.

Producer Shekar Viswanathan