A musical performance by Alankar

Alankar is Ashoka’s very own Indian Music choir. With a larger overarching vision of encouraging the entire Ashokan populace (students, faculty, staff, and more) to listen, appreciate, perform, and actively engage with all forms of Indian music (Classical, Regional/Folk, Sufi, Fusion, and more!), Alankar houses a terrific and very diverse repertoire of 25+ Indian classical singers and musicians. Comprised mainly of undergraduates, Young India Fellows and PhD students on campus, we have vocalists from both the Hindustani and Carnatic schools of Indian music, who come from all corners of the country and thus bring with them a rich tapestry of regional folk music as well.

As a choir, our vocalists not only sing in their respective styles of music, but also strive to learn and sing in many different dialects and languages, to cater to the musical tastes of a very diverse Ashokan audience. We also have a very vibrant team of instrumentalists, composed of musicians who play the Tabla, Dholak, Cajon, Carnatic Mandolin, Carnatic and Hindustani Violins, Sitar, Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Harmonium, and the Piano. Apart from playing their own instruments in their traditional styles, our musicians are always on the lookout for ways to adapt their instruments’ tone and sound to play along with completely different styles of music. As a choir, over the past year, Alankar has practiced and performed 30+ songs in 8+ languages, set to a variety of themes. We have performed as background singers and musicians in plays, composed original pieces of music to fit various moods and enhance the musical quality of multiple productions. On the Ashoka campus, Alankar performs in multiple small and big productions every semester, which range right from extremely informal sit-down jam sessions (or “Baithaks”) open for all Ashokans, to rigorously planned and practiced, large-scale, over-an-hour-long productions in the Black-Box theatre. No matter the number and kinds of productions we put up in a semester, we always end every semester with our very own Choir Showcase, which is an all-time favorite show of all the Ashokans. Recently, Alankar was also invited to perform “Navarasa 2.0”, a 90-min long set based on the 9 different rasas (loosely translating to emotions) as outlined in Bharata’s Natyashastra, at IIT Delhi’s Seminar Hall.

For the cultural evening at this conference, a small part of the choir will be performing an eclectic mix of vocal as well as instrumental music. Our musicians will perform a short conversation-style concert on the Tabla and Sitar (a “Sawal-Jawab"), followed by a unique selection of songs by our vocalists, accompanied also by the Electric Guitar. Through this performance, we hope to fill the evening with soulful music which is both soothing and enriching. We hope you enjoy experiencing the concert as much as we would while performing for you!