(Photo by Enith)
Hard on the heels of Northwest Folklife’s Indian cultural celebration last weekend, Cornish College hosts another first-rate Indian concert, by the Gundecha Brothers (pictured), a trio of master musicians.
The concert is the finale of the weeklong Dhrupad Festival, which has been luxuriating in a particularly serene and beautiful strand of Indian classical music with concerts and workshops.
Singing is considered the highest form of music in Indian classical tradition, and Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha are celebrated practitioners of the art. They are accompanied by their younger brother, Akhilesh Gundecha, who plays the double-headed hand drum called the pakhawaj.
The Gunechas, who run an academy in Bhopal and have traveled to more than 20 countries, practice the jugulbandi style, which means they sing in unison and also trade improvisations (like jazz musicians). Their voices are miraculously supple, sliding in smooth glissandos from pitch to pitch or adding sudden accents and quick changes of timbre.
The Gundecha Brothers
7 p.m. Friday, May 30, at the Cornish Playhouse, Seattle Center; $20-$45 (800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com).