Melodious nights come to an end

The chance to indulge oneself in nights enriched with music and dance, has come to an end. After much arrangement, five magical nights left the audience mesmerized and anticipating again for next year. 
The crowded army stadium packed with spectators spread across the lawn, gallery and chairs, took in all that Bengal Classical Music Festival had to offer on the last night. 
The music department of Dhaka University entertained the audience with their opening performance, followed by Parampara Sangeetalaya students on sitar.
Like every time, pundit Shivkumar Sharma requested the audience to settle down quietly. ‘You cannot just listen to music; you have to feel it,’ he said, before capturing the audience with a majestic performance aided by Yogesh Samsi on tabla.
Kumar Mardur, Arati Ankalikar, Kusul Das and Hariprasad Chaurasia were other artists who left the audience breathless with their magical performance last night. 
For the fifth year Bengal Classical Music Festival was organized by Bengal Foundation in association with Square Group, supported by BRAC Bank and managed by Blues Communication.
Founder and chairperson of BRAC Fazle Hassan Abed was the chief guest, while emeritus professor Anisuzzaman, managing director of Square Pharmaceuticals Anjan Chowdhury, Dhaka North City Corporation mayor Annisul Huq and Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sayeed Khokon were also special guests at the closing ceremony. 
‘If Bengal Foundation continues to flourish successfully, Bangladesh may soon discover their own Ravi Shankar,’ said Fazle Hassan Abed. He hoped to see the tenth Classical Music Fest being held while he is still alive. 
Chairman of Bengal Foundation Abul Khair thanked everyone for participating in the event. Khair also requested everyone to stand and observe a moment of silence for all the lives Bangladesh has lost in the past year, including the victims of the Holy Artisan attack. 
Director general of Bengal Foundation Luva Nahid Chowdhury, managing director of Blues Communication Farhadul Islam and managing director of Bengal Express Zeenat Chowdhury were also on stage as special guests. 
‘It is amazing to see thousands of people attend this event and stay the entire night, just for the music. This shows how much we appreciate and value our culture,’ said professor Anisuzzaman. 
The audience grew in number as the night became longer. A few of the audience said that they had come to hear Hariprasad Chaurasia play the flute at dawn. 
Chaurasia expressed gratitude to the audience who attended the event solely to hear him play. ‘The event organisers treat me like a football. They use me to score the last goal of the match,’ joked Chaurasia demonstrating how his performance marks the end of Bengal Classical Music Festival.

Source: Prothom Alo