Samraga – The Festival
Samraga is a festival of Indian Classical Music that started in Ahmedabad, with a view to promote the classical music tradition amongst the wider music audience. The experience of listening to Indian classical music in an environment that allows interaction, Q&A with the artists is the USP of this music festival. From the starting point of Ahmedabad, we have been able to host events Dehli, Dubai and London.
Beat of a Drum
Beat Of A Drum was set up to help propagate the art of Indian Classical music and various other musical genre across generations and backgrounds. The essence of the classical art form has not been fully explored with regular music lovers and the younger generation in particular.
Beat Of A Drum’s aim is to host and promote classical and experimental music events which have a strong interactive and collaborative theme. The idea is to achieve this by bringing together artists from different style and genre. These events are often followed by educational, creative and interactive workshops with institutions and corporates. The workshops have an experimental feel with innovative ideas, such as combining Music & Theatre, Music & Mathematics, Music & Design, Music & Therapy, Music & Management and so forth. Beat of a Drum believes that to save and promote the identity and richness of the classical art forms, we all need to play a part in designing and packaging it for the wider audience.
We have an incredible network of individuals who we have brought together from various artistic fields. Their expertise and creativity will add value and contribute to the purpose we seek to achieve. We, at Beat Of A Drum organize regular “Baithaks” featuring Indian classical music wherein 90-100 people are regular listeners from different age groups. Artists from Ahmedabad and other cities perform regularly at these baithaks. Baithak has become a popular fixture among music listeners in Ahmedabad. The concept has found support in terms of publicity by local newspapers and Gujarat Samachar. Baithaks are also happening in Toronto, London & Dubai. ‘Homage’ is another event, which is organized every year on 4th June in the memory of Late Raghunath Chate, my father. This is a platform for young and upcoming artist to showcase their talent alongside the masters.
Hiren Chate
Born and raised in Ahmedabad, Hiren Chate comes from a family of musicians. Hiren has trained in Tabla (Indian percussion instrument) from exponents in the field. He has worked with composers like Nitin Sawhney, Taoas Relia to name a few. He has performed with the theatre ‘de Complicite’ for a production titled, “A disappearing number”. Hiren has composed music for various dance companies in London and Europe. He runs a company “Beat of a drum” which promotes Indian classical music festival, ‘Samraga’ in Ahmedabad and London. In between his compositions & performances, Hiren teaches. He has several students in India, U.K., Canada, America and Europe. He also runs a music academy in Dubai called “Bandish Perfoming Arts”. Hiren collaborates regularly with musicians from UK, Europe & India to develop & perform unique and exciting musical showcases.