AS A CURATOR

Amrit has curated many events, concepts & concerts. Some of them are..

‘Visheha Laya Vadya Parichaya’

He curated a special series of presentations titled ‘Visheha Laya Vadya Parichaya’ for Ananya, Bangalore. This was a 3 days series specially conceived & designed to introduce, present & highlight other percussion Instruments of in our Musical tradition like Khanjira, Ghata, Morching, Konnakkol, Thavil & Chande. The main focus was to make the audience aware of these percussion traditions, history, development & the playing techniques of these Instruments.

The presentations were grouped as Morching & Konnakkol for the 1st day, Thavil & Chande for the 2nd day and Khanjira & Ghata for the 3rd day. Each session would start with the history & evolution of each art form & finish with a percussion Duo by the respective artists.

Sri Amrit invited Vidwan Giridhar Udupa for Ghatam, Vidwan B. Rajashekar for Morching, Vidwan Rajkumar for Thavil, Vidwan Harsha Samaga for Chande & Vidwan Somashekara Jois for Konnakkol.

The event was a huge success & with a large crowd all the three days. The event is fresh in the memories of audience even to this day.

'Transcendence 1'

Amrit curated 'Transcendence 1', the first of its kind tribute concert, in 2018 culminating the 60th year Anniversary celebration his late Guru Khanjira Wizard Sri G. Harishankar and the 100th year Anniversary celebration of master drummer Legendary Buddy Rich, which was a rare occurrence.

The event was well organized by Gigue productions at Bandra's St. Andrew's Auditorium, Mumbai, India.

Sri Amrit collaborated with one of the greatest drummers of our time Sri Ranjit Barot Ji to offer musical tributes to these legends in this event. The concert was meticulously curated giving adequate space to highlight the life and work of both the legends.

We were joined by other wonderful musicians Sri Rajkamal Nagaraj, Christos Yerolatsitis, Rhythm Shaw & Avishek Dey who gave their best performance making the concert a memorable one.

The event was a huge success, well received and a lot of appreciation poured in.

The event was attended by many musicians like legendary Louis banks, Ustad Taufiq Qureshi, Vidwan Sridhar Parthasarathy, Sri Ashwin Srinivasan and many more.

Jazz legend Mr. Louis banks wholeheartedly wrote a long appreciation note on his social media expressing his thoughts and happiness about the quality and music of this event.

'Transcendence 2'

Amrit curated 'Transcendence 2'for GIGUE productions as a tribute to JAZZ LEGEND OSCAR PETERSON & LEGENDARY VIOLINIST VIDWAN MYSORE SRI T. CHOWDIAH
at St. Andrew's Auditorium, Mumbai, India.

Amrit brought in 'Father of Jazz in India' Mr. Louiz Banks & Vidwan Dr. Mysore Sri Manjunath together for the first time for this event to offer their tributes to the great legends.

This event also featured Pandith Sri Yogesh Samsi on Tabla, Vidwan Sri Bangalore Amrit on Khanjira, Gino Banks on drums & Gianluca Liberatore on Bass Guitar.

The event was divided in to three segments. The First segment was a tribute to Oscar Peterson by Mr. Louiz Banks. The second segment was a tribute to Mysore T Chowdaiah by Dr. Mysore Manjunath. The third segment was a jamming of all the artists with an exciting percussion Trio by the Master percussionists.

The event was a huge success with packed audience and overwhelming response.

Legends of Frame Drums

Amrit curated ‘Legends of Frame Drums’ a special duet concert with world renowned Doyra Maestro Abbos Kosimov (Uzbekistan) & himself playing the lead.

Grammy award winner Dr. Prakash Sontakke (on Hawaiin Guitar) & composer/keyboardist Shadrach Solomon (Keyboards) joined them to make this concert even more exciting.

Amrit curated the event in such a way that it touched many genres of music from around the world & pleased the audiences to the core.

The concert traversed into various dimensions & horizons of Khanjira & Doyra exploring their enormous possibilities in the World of Rhythm & Music. The audiences were treated to a wonderful musical feast.

AS AN ORGANSER

Amrit has been organizing concerts & events for more than 25 years. He has organized Vocal Concerts, Instrumental concerts, Percussion Ensemble concerts & Fusion concerts.

He has been an advisor for many organizations. He has guided many of them to organize concerts, series, Music festivals, Lecture Demonstrations & workshops.

He was a youth wing coordinator & committee member for a many years in the Percussive Arts Centre, Bangalore.

AS A MENTOR

Amrit has been mentoring many musicians & percussionists in multiple aspects.

He has been guiding them about various aspects of Music & Rhythm. He has been guiding many students about concert planning & its execution.

He also has been guiding many of them about how to prepare for competitive events like All India Radio Competitions, Auditions & up-gradations, Scholarship exams 7 others. Many of them have been taking career guidance & advice from him from several years and seen a lot of growth & progress.

SPECIAL FETES

Amrit has pushed the physical boundaries of Khanjira playing & achieved some very rare fetes.

SANKEERNA (9 Aksharas per beat)

Amrit is one of the very few artistes to have explored the various possibilities of Sankeerna Gati (9 Aksharas per beat) to a very large extent. While Sankeerna Gati is quite challenging to play in 2 hands, Amrit is a master of executing Sankeerna with 1 hand with great ease along with a lot of power & clarity without reduces the tempo of the Taala. He is also very adept in playing melkalam phrases (high speed phrases, double of 9) in Sankeerna.

He has performed an entire Laya Vinyasa (percussion Concert) in Sankeerna Nade along with Sri Jayachandra Rao for the Annual Thaalavadya Seminar for the Percussive Arts Centre, Bangalore. He is the only Artiste to have performed Khanjira Solo entirely in Sankeerna Gati.

He is also a master exponent of playing the Sankeerna in Mridangam too. He recorded an entire track in Sankeerna in his Solo Album ‘khanjirAmrit’, in which he played both Mridanga & Khanjira.

Amrit’s rendition of Sankeerna is a bench mark for students & Artistes alike who are looking for a reference to play or approach Sankeerna Gati

AS A COLLABORATOR

Amrit has collaborated in various prestigious Projects. Some of the Major projects are

‘YOGINI YOGA’
Amrit was a part of ‘YOGINI YOGA’ India's Yoga Anthem a special production by Centre for Soft Power, Heritage, India Foundation, Indic Academy conceptualized by Smt. Vijayalakshmi Vijayakumar Composed in Raga Bharata by Mysore Dr. M. Manjunath, Lyrics by ‘Padmabhushana’ Shatavadhaani Dr R. Ganesh, Compiled & Arranged by Sri Praveen D. Rao

The Global Artistes who were a part of this production are Pandith Ronu Majumdar – Bansuri, Vidwan Dr. Mysore Manjunath – Violin, Pandith Umakanth and Ramakanth Gundecha (Gundecha Brothers) - Vocal Dhrupad, ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ Smt. Bombay Jayasri - Carnatic Vocal, Sri Vijay Prakash – Carnatic Vocal, Pandith Sanjeev Abhyankar – Hindustani Vocal, ‘Sangita Kalanidhi’ Jayanthi Kumaresh – Veena, Ustad Rafique Khan –Sitar, Pandith Ramdas Palsule – Tabla, Vidwan B C Manjunath – Mridangam and Konnakol, Vidwan N. Amrit – Khanjira, Vidwan Giridhar Udupa – Ghatam, Sri Gurumurthy Vaidya – Pakhawaj, Alice Barron - Violin, London, Ned McGovan – Flute, Holland, Fulvio Sigurta - Trumpet, Italy, Keiko Shichijo – Piano, Japan, Trina Basu - Violin, Canada & Arun Ramamurthy- Violin, USA.

Dance direction and choreography were done by Rukmini Vijayakumar.
This project was supported & encouraged by ‘PadmaSri’ Dr. H. R. Nagendra (Chancellor, SVYASA Yoga University)

‘RAM DARSAN KARO’
Sri Amrit was a part of ‘Ram Darsan Karo’ - a massive musical project composed & directed by Sangeet Samrat Chitravina N Ravikiran hailed as “A monumental effort” by India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Featuring over 250 legendary and talented artists of diverse cultures and musical genres from India, USA and other countries, this is one of the largest productions of its kind in the world in terms of quality, quantity and diversity.

STAR STUDDED LINE UP: The Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Grammy, Sangeet Natak Akademi and diverse other Award winning icons includes the Dr Vyjayantimala Bali, (Former MP), Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, 100-year old Dr. T K Murthy, Dr. Sonal Mansingh (MP, Rajya Sabha), Shri Vikku Vinayakaram, Glen Velez, Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, Dr M Chandrashekaran, Prof Trichy Sankaran, Chitravina N Ravikiran, Humayoun Sakhi, Shri Madurai G S Mani, Guru Karaikkudi Mani, Maestro George Brooks, Shri R K Padmanabha, Kum A Kanyakumari, Smt Sudha Ragunathan, Smt Aruna Sairam, Jovino Santos Neto, Shri Haridwaramangalam A K Palanivel,
Sri Shankar Mahadevan, Pt Tejendra Majumdar, Vid Lalgudi Krishnan & Vijayalakshmi, Pt Ronu Majumdar, Vid P Unnikrishnan, Pt Tarun Bhattacharya,
Vid Flute Shashank, Vid Malladi Brothers, Dr M S Sheela, Dr Nithyashree Mahadevan, Pt Pravin Godkhindi, Dr Suma Sudheendra, Dr Kannan Balakrishnan, Shri Tanmoy Bose, Shri Embar Kannan, Dr Ghatam Karthick, Vid Bangalore Amrit, Dr N J Nandini, Vid Akkarai Subhalakshmi & Sornalata, Vid. Carnatica Brothers, Vid K Gayathri,
Vid Sikkil Gurucharan, Vid Lakshmi Nagaraj, Vid Kunnakkudi Balamuralikrishna,
Vid Sriram Parthasarathy, Vid Sandeep Narayanan, Mandolin U Rajesh,
Vid Manimaran, Dr Manasi Prasad, Vid Abilash, Dr Srivani Yella, Dr Mysore Sahana, Vid Mylai Karthikeyan and Keyboard Sathya, Anahita & Apoorva, Bhargavi Balasubramanian Veena Akhilandeshwari, Gayatri Sivani, and Pathangi Brothers, to name a few.

PANCHTATVA

Amrit was a part of ‘PANCHTATVA’ an Unique concept by Durga Jasraj (Daughter of Padmavibhushan Pandith Jasraj)

This was an audio visual extravaganza depicting the Pancha Bhootas - Earth (Prithvi), Water (Jala), Fire (Agni), Air (Vayu) & Space (Akash) in the form of Poetry & Music.

Amrit performed with Stalwart Padmavibhushan Pandith Jasraj, Ustad Rashid Khan, Pandith Vishwamohan Bhat, Ustad Taufiq Qureshi, Vidwan Sridhar Parthasararthy, Pandith Ramkumar Mishra, Pandith Shubhankar Banerjee, Vidwan Shahshank, pandith Praveen Godkhindi, Pandith Ratan Mohan Sharma & others. The poetic naraation was by Durga jasraj.