{"id":248,"date":"2014-03-13T18:08:59","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T18:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/?page_id=248"},"modified":"2014-03-14T05:54:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T05:54:32","slug":"sample-page-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/?page_id=248","title":{"rendered":"Community\u2019s ghazal queen wows aficionados ~ Aziz Haniffa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back To Press Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Community\u2019s ghazal queen wows aficionados<\/strong> ~ Aziz Haniffa, India Abroad, March 25, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ghazal diva Vatsala Mehra, a veteran performer at the Kennedy Center, said singing this time around \u2013 her fourth solo performance at the Kennedy Center \u2013 was different. Because, she was \u201cdoing India and IndianAmericans proud\u201d, as part of the Maximum India Festival.<\/p>\n

The Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center was packed to capacity with the Indian-American cognoscenti in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and South Asian American Ghazal aficionados as Mehra held the audience captive with a scintillating three-hour concert.<\/p>\n

Like her first solo show at the Kennedy Center nearly 12 years ago, busloads of ghazal aficionados came from New Jersey, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Cleveland. Several other fans flew in from across the country for the performance, where she was accompanied by Pandit Mishra on sarangi, Sunny Jain on drums and dhol, Bashir Khan on the bulbul tarang and Debu Nayak on the table.<\/p>\n

Mumbai-born Mehra, a pioneer in disseminating this rich classical music tradition in the Washington, DC area and the founder and director of the Balaji Music Academy in Mclean, Virginia, told India Abroad <\/em>after the performance: \u201cThe audience was amazingly responsive, even though some of them may not have understood the lyrics of the songs\u201d.<\/p>\n

She sang 12 songs. \u201cSome were from my albums and some were popular ones with my own style infused in them, which was sort of soulful Sufi and Thumri infused with jazz. I am so glad the audience enjoyed the selection \u2013 going by the applause I received \u2013 because it was a mixed genre of music,\u201d she explained. \u201cI had a few people come up to me with misty eyes at the end of the show and this made me cry as well\u201d.<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cThe thumri <\/em>that I sang was composed in (Awadh) Nawab Wajid Ali Shah\u2019s durbar by Ustad Sadiq Ali Khan Saab, who was my guru\u2019s great great grandfather, who was the creator of the thumri. I am so proud to belong to the Lucknow gharana (school of music<\/em>).\u201d<\/p>\n

After her performance March 8, Mehra\u2019s Facebook page was filled with kudos from Indian Americans in the Washington, DC area and from across the country.<\/p>\n

Rohini Dhingra Khera said, \u2018What a dazzling performance! It was scintillating and an almost out of body experience\u2019. Sneh Kataria described it as \u2018a mesmerizing performance\u2019. Anju Malhotra said,\u2019 It was a rich combination of classical music, grace, and beauty\u2019. Shalini Bhatia called it \u2018a breathtakingly melodious performance\u2019 while Pam Sharma said \u2018 It was a most memorable concert and your rendition of our Indian Classical music is the ultimate compliment to this art that is embedded in the fabric of our culture\u2019. Monica Gupta declared, \u2018It seemed that you were on fire\u2026.You had such a beautiful presence on stage and your voice was ethereal!\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mehra, who immigrated to the United States in 1974, to join her husband, Jawaharlal \u2018Joe\u2019 Mehra, a transportation engineer, reiterated: \u201cI was so proud as an Indian American to bring this classical Indian tradition to not only our own who were a huge part of the audience, but also to many in the mainstream who had also come for the concert, which was a sellout\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mehra, who started singing at age 8, released her first album Guftgu <\/em>in 1980. In 1992, Atlantic Video released Nigahen, <\/em>making her the first Indian woman ghazal singer to have released a video. After her first solo performance in 1992, The Washington Post <\/em> music critic Don MacLean compared her voice to that of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back To Press Page Community\u2019s ghazal queen wows aficionados ~ Aziz Haniffa, India Abroad, March 25, 2011 Ghazal diva Vatsala Mehra, a veteran performer at the Kennedy Center, said singing this time around \u2013 her fourth solo performance at the Kennedy Center \u2013 was different. Because, she was \u201cdoing India and IndianAmericans proud\u201d, as part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-248","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/248\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vatsalamehra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}