Chicago Film Premieres: Sangeet Ratna and Ravi Shankar’s Music Festival from India

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Chicago Film Premieres: Sangeet Ratna and Ravi Shankar’s Music Festival from India

Following Shankar’s passing in December 2012, award winning visual artist, filmmaker, and Grammy-nominated music producer Alan Kozlowski (1948-2020) mined the archives to produce Sangeet Ratna (“Jewel of Music”), a 35-minute tribute to Ravi Shankar featuring rare footage and interviews. The short film was originally presented in March 2013 at Shankar’s memorial event in New Delhi. Kozlowski was first exposed to Shankar’s music at a concert in San Francisco in 1965, and met Shankar under auspicious circumstances in 1978, which began 35 years of study and collaboration. Kozlowski went on to perform with Shankar in venues around the world and has produced and directed many music documentaries featuring such diverse artists as Jackson Browne, Kenny Loggins, and Lionel Richie.

Immediately following is a screening of Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India. Directed by Stuart Cooper, who has received more than twenty international awards, the 70-minute concert film was shot at the Royal Albert Hall in London, on September 23, 1974. The film features an all-star Indian classical music ensemble led by Shankar with commentary from ex-Beatle George Harrison. Shankar gathered an impressive array of sixteen superstar musicians who are among the finest exponents of Indian classical music.

A post-screening discussion will be led by exhibition co-curators Brian Keigher and Gaurav Mazumdar.

About Ravi Shankar

For over eight decades, Ravi Shankar (1920-2012), was India's greatest cultural ambassador bringing the East and the West closer through music. He was a groundbreaking performer and composer of Indian classical music who brought the music and rich culture of India to the world's leading concert halls and festivals, charting the map for those who followed in his footsteps.  Shankar made it his life's mission to spread understanding and love of Indian classical music. He took it up himself in the 1920s and 1930s, after touring the world as a dancer in his famed brother Uday Shankar’s Hindu Music and Dance troupe. First, he played a leading role in its revival in India as a national classical art form; then, from the mid-1950s onward, he took it abroad to the world's foremost concert halls, festival stages and airwaves. He had a rare gift for making new audiences excited about previously alien music. He was renowned for playing at Monterey Pop and Woodstock festivals, creating the first all-star music benefit event, Concert for Bangladesh with George Harrison. Shankar reshaped the musical landscape across pop, jazz, and classical music and composed unforgettable scores for movies like Pather Panchali and Gandhi.

Please note that this is in-person event*

SAI is wheelchair accessible.

*Proof of vaccination/ recent negative COVID test and masks are required by all attendees*

Parking is available around South Asia Institute, metered and free street parking in the neighborhood.