Study Information - Academy of Indian Classical Music

Study Information for 2010

_{^{Study Programme at Mishra School of Classical Indian Music & dance in Varanasi, India,}}_²⁰¹⁰

Academy welcome to all music lovers from different part of the world to come and study Indian classical music at Academy in Varanasi.

Please contact us for booking your place because academy can teach only limited people at the time.

Dear Friends of World Music & Dance,

^{Here are details regarding a study Programme to the Mishra School of Classical Indian Music and Dance in Varanasi, India.}

^{The core offering is a}

^{4 weeks beginer programme}

^{8 weeks to 12 weeks Advance programme}

^{25 weeks semi master programme}

Please inquire for longer study.

Going Back and Going Forward

Academy accepts students in age from 16 to 60.

Some of them had been to India many times. All of them felt very happy and satisfied with their experience studying at the school. The intimacy and authenticity of their relationship with the very musical Mishra family and the extended musical community, of which they are an integral part, were the heart of that experience.

Enjoying and deepening an understanding of music and cultural life in India were the main aims of this Academy . .

The Curriculum:

The curriculum is shaped to meet the specific areas of interest and types of instruments (including voice) performed by the people taking part in the lessons.

Singing is the heart of all studies. When playing your instrument, as Ali Akbar Khan has said, you must be “singing inside.” Students might tell us about their particular areas of interest in musical study beforehand, so that we might engage musical resources in the local music community to meet those areas of interest, such as: voice, tabla, sitar & surbahar (base sitar), sarod, harmonium, flute and many others.

Students might schedule their lessons according to their chosen subjects of study, what means that they might attend any and/or all classes offered, as they wish.

Recording devices are welcome.

If you wish to acquire a specific instrument while you studying at the Academy, please let us know and Deobrat Mishra ( “Debu”) can make sure that an instrument of suitable quality might be available under due consideration.

You can also bring an instrument you already play, if you want to.

Music Classes :(Mon-Sat)

Most of music Class run one hour but if you

want you can have class more then one hour.

Please ask for the price of the Classes

B I O F O N I A (Music Healing workshop)

Biofonia Program for Academy of Indian Music

Biofonia is a system of healing and meditating through sound and music. It derives from

ancient paths like Nada Yoga and Nadabrahma, the mythical origins of indian music.

It utilizes the same elements of indian classical music but with an inner focalization.

It is a kind of Yoga which utilizes sound, vocal singing, rythmic Tala patterns, breathing and defined body rythmic movements as the instruments to smoothen tensions, release emotions, harmonize the mind, lead to creative and meditative states of consciousness. Thus the singing voice is considered as the first instrument which can influence and rebalance the mind, “bringing it back to its bright essence” and open inner energies. Biofonia goes through chakra and nadi, mainly through voice inner resonance and the frequencies of the svaras, the indian musical notes.

Some Ragas have an intense potentiality in releasing threatened inner energy, and they can be used through simple vocalizations for this purpose. Different svaras can have a benefit influence on the individual, they can open inner energies, and open spaces in mind and body for creativity and imagination. Another important technique is the seek of finding and rebalancing the basic individual note, the “individual tonic” or ground note”: it is the personal sound reference, and getting back to it can be important to get back to one's own balance.

Main themes and subject threated in the Biofonia course in Academy:

- Approach to inner sound techniques

- sound simbology in indian music and relations with Nada Yoga: colours, emotions, timings, etc.

- Voice, breathing, and inner sensations: introduction to inner vocality

- sound vibration inside the body, learning to feel it and to use it

- connections between svaras (indian notes) and chakra, nadi, emotions, body sensations, mind thoughts and the way to relaxation and releasing threatened energies through voice

- relations between Biofonia, Nada Yoga and artistic classical indian music

- Rythmic and Tala techniques to release tensions through body movement

- Music thérapy, Biofonia, Nada Yoga, affinities and differences – some techniques of the three

- through sound to meditation

- introduction to Harmonic Singing techniques

- inner, intuitive and silent singing to meditation

The teacher:

- Paolo Avanzo

- He is a senior student of P. Shivnath Mishra in Sitar– He wrote the book “Biofonia” (Mi 2002); he attended to 3 years training course with Prof. Vemu Mukunda on Nadabrahma Music Thérapy System and Nada Yoga , and then he deepend sound thérapy with master H. Mitra;

- He graduated in state music school “Conservatorio Pedrollo” of Vicenza (Italy) in “Extraeuropean music systems/Indology”; He attended to courses in IISMC (Istituto Interculturale musiche comparate) of Venezia (Italy), founded by A. Danielou; he attended to stages with Pandit Ravi Shankar (1980), Buddadhitya Mukerjee (1987-91), and prof. Tran Qiuan Hai (Harmonic Singing), prof. in Foreign Languages (University of Venezia, Italy),

- Art-Counselor, expert in Breathwork Techniques and Hata Yoga -

- All lessons will be held only in Academy of Indian Music in Badaini, Varanasi

- Scheduled period for the course:

Biophonia will be ony one times of the year please ask Academy for more info.

The Academy

Built specifically to be a school of music while studying music and dance, the Academy is situated within a five minute walk from the long arc of the Ganga River, along which you can see and explore hundreds of temples, markets and amazing places of reflection and contemplation.

Its construction completed in 2007, the Academy is a place full of light, lots of talking and laughter…and music!

On the ground floor the Academy houses a generous concert, recital and music hall, where you may see and hear numerous amazing performances by some of Varanasi’s most brilliant musical luminaries.

Cost: Priceless…

Please Ask for the price of the study programme in advance.

Thanks for your interest and please let me know about your thoughts, questions & concerns.

Sincerely,

And on behalf of Pandit Shivnath & Deobrat Mishra

Online Music Study

Good news for people who can’t come to India to study music so now Deobrat Mishra will give online lesson to students from all over the world.

So that students not only can learn this beautiful instrument in their won country but also learn with master musicians.

Form June 25^th Deobart Mishra will start to give online Sitar lesson to student’s please contact us in advance on mishramusic@hotmail.com

Class will be done on Skype.

Student’s need to book on line course at list one week ahead.

^{How to get to Varanasi:}

^{_{The best way to come to India is flying to Delhi and from Delhi there are two ways of getting to Varanasi.}}

_{^{First, by flight what takes around one hour and a half. There are many companies which offer this flight, such as: Spice Jet, Kingfischer, Jet Air Ways and India Airlines. Please check the official website of any of those companies and, if you want, you can buy your flight ticket online.}}

_{^{Second, if you prefer to come by train, which is a less costly option, though it takes twelve to thirteen hours. The train's name is Shivaganga Express or Kashi Vishwanath Express (this takes around sixteen hours).}}

^{It is important to know that you can reserve your tickets online. If interested, please click:}^{http://www.indianrail.gov.in/}

^{Make sure that you book your ticket in advance.}

Accommodation & Food near Academy:

Academy will not accommodate students so that, there are many Hotels and lodge near Academy if you let Academy know in Advance may be we can help you to book your Accommodation near Academy. Also there are many good quality resturants near Academy.

^{Deobrat Mishra}

^{mishramusic@hotmail.com}

^{0091-542-2455672}^{www.music-of-benares.com}

^{“Language of the Gods”…}

^{by Marco Zonka}
^{In one of the oldest and most continually inhabited cities in the world, Varanasi, India, very little is new under the sun.
Her days numbered by the fleeting reign of kings and queens, her nights measured by the rise and fall of empires, Varanasi--or Benares, as it is also know-- has been the sacred destination of pilgrimages throughout the millennia. It is also the city of the holy mother of rivers: the Ganga, or “mother river”.
And much like the Nile in Egypt, the Ganga River valley is a cradle of ancient, and modern, Hindustani civilization. Hundreds of temples adorn her shores, a necklace of radiant and crumbling jewels. Songs and prayers emerge in their billions from these temples, floating out over the rippling waters of the Ganga, to be answered…or not.
Though little in Varanasi is ever really new among the millions of living souls who live in or visit her yearly, new forms of some very refreshingly ‘old forms’ are being born and reborn daily.
So when a living musical tradition evolving for more than three thousand years finds a new home along the seething streets of Varanasi, that is either no big news, or very big news indeed.}

^{From the “Temples of the Gods” Into “The Palaces of the Queens & Kings”;}

^{A Brief History}

^{The origin of Hindustani classical music can be traced back to Vedic times, nearly five thousand years ago. Some say its origin is far older, lost in the mists of distant times and places beyond the lives and memories of humankind. Sanskrit writings ascribe its genealogy to a period in remote antiquity. There, it is written, this music was originally “the language of the gods.”
From this obscure point of indeterminate origin, it evolved over thousands of years in temples and spiritual traditions throughout the Indian subcontinent. And many centuries ago, it moved from the temples into the palaces of the kings and queens of India, who were its most fervent and avid patrons. The music of the temples, adapting to it’s new environment in the courts of worldly kings, began also to express the regal and earthly sensibilities of the imperial court.
Later, during the cultural influx and imperial dominion of the Persian and Muslim kings, it underwent yet another metamorphosis: Enriched by the playful, improvisatory, and carnal aires favored by the Persian and Islamic musical masters, the genius of the ecstatic music from Persia began consorting with the traditions of sacred music in India. And it was a fruit-full union indeed, resulting today in the many branches of Hindustani music that bless Northern India –and now even more of the world-- with the vibrancy of musical mysteries and melodies that both echo and live from another time…another world.
Much of the mystery and alluring depth that the listener can experience in this music comes from this dynamic blend; the alchemy of the sacred embracing the senses; Persian imagination and sensuality embracing Hindu precision and discipline; the earthly embracing the otherworldly; the known exploring and experiencing the unknown.
One evening, a few years ago, after explaining a bit of the history of the music in relation to the patronage of the high courts of India in previous centuries, Deobrat Mishra –quite a raconteur in his own right-- said to an audience last year.
“Now it is different, and also the same.
“My grandfathers played for kings and queens of India. But they are gone now.
“Now, it is you who are the kings and queens.
“And we are here to play for you.”}

^{Milestones & Millennia…}

^{So this month marks yet another small and large milestone along the millennial path of classical Hindustani music: the Pramila-Shivnath Mishra family branch of the Benares ‘gharana’ (‘ancestral linage’) finds a new home in the very old city of their origin.
And as the Academy of Classical Indian Music built by the family of Shivnath Mishra in Benares opens its doors for the first time, a uniquely intimate doorway into the world of Classical Indian music is also being opened; a door through which either the novice or accomplished practitioner may enter and be met, at and above, their present level of musical experience and evolution.}

^{Circles and horizons…}

^{The Mishra’s played for the first time on this continent in Nelson B.C. almost ten years ago. Like many avian species that fly in from distant lands to spend their summers among the waters and forests of plenty, the Mishra’s have flown from Asia to North America yearly since then.
Expanding their travel horizons to a widening community of sacred music enthusiasts in over 100 towns and cities, virtuoso sitarist Shivnath Mishra, and sitar-duet musical partner and son Deobrat Mishra, have musically hand-forged hundreds of intimate personal connections through circles of friends far and wide in British and American Columbiana, a favored playground on their yearly migrations around the world.
Those who have experienced the Mishra’s in performance are touched by the tender and loving, and also ferocious and adversarial, musical dialogue that unfolds between this father and son duet, or –as some say—“duel.” Humorous and endearing, mysterious and unpredictable, eliciting often from their listeners bursts of laughter and tears, Shivnath & Deobrat Mishra, as sitarists and singers in duet, are always an adventure full of passion and surprise.
“Each performance is kind of life-time,” Deobrat once said. “And like a lifetime, it must include and express everything.”
Leaning toward the microphone, with limited English but expansive perspectives, Pandit Shivnath added:
“Father and son together…very difficult…sometimes play, sometimes no play…very difficult”… his bemused smile expressing volumes of nuance, implicit to the dynamic emotional interplay in the changing constellations of father and son.}

^{Spectrum of emotion…}

^{Pandit Shivnath Mishra’s playing style, devotional and exuberant, daring and tender, has mesmerized and delighted thousands of people in India and Europe and North American for decades. His energetic and engaging and mischievous mastery of his most deeply ‘native tongue’ –the language of music known as “raga”, often leaves his audiences both thoroughly engaged, and entranced.
“Raga” a Sanskrit word, means variously a color, a feeling, a rainbow, a time of day, a melody, a spectrum of emotion.
After thirty six years as the head of the Music Department at Sampurnand Sanskrit University in Varanasi, and over twenty years of performing and teaching in Europe and Asia and North America -- ‘Pandit’ (or “maestro”) Shivnath Mishra has been teacher and mentor to thousands of students and disciples, communicating across four decades and three continents his love for and knowledge of this precious music.}

^{Luminaries…}

^{At the age of Shivnath Mishra began studying vocal music with his father Badri Prasad Mishra and with his uncle and guru Pandit (master musician) Mahadev Prasad Mishra.
In a family of fine vocalists dating back more than seven generations in Benares, he is the first to master the sitar, playing it in 'Thumari' style, characterized by a strong emphasis on melody and deep emotion. In 1966 he received a gold medal in the All India Music Conference in Calcutta and has performed in Germany and throughout Europe since 1979. Well known on All India Radio and Television, he has performed with many of India's great musicians including Kishan Maharaj, Samta Prasad, Sharda Sahai, Laccu Maharaj,Suresh Talwarkar,Fazal Qureshi and Ashish Khan. He has also performed with jazz artists such as John Handy, Paul Horn, David Freezen and Ben Conrad.
His son Deobrat Mishra, a promising luminary with his own musical light, was chosen in 1995 by All India Radio to receive the award of “Best Young Sitarist” in India. As a child he studied tabla with his mother Pramila, granddaughter of the well-known tablist Baiju Mishra. Pandit Shivnath began singing musical scales into his ears as a newborn infant, prompting him to sing before he learned to talk. Deobrat performed for the first time at age six, and played sitar on All India Radio at age eleven. He has toured Europe with his father for over 15 years now, and has received the Jewels of Sound award in Mumbai, equivalent to the North American Grammy.

in 2006 also marked another significant turning point: the end of Pandit Shivnath Mishra’s 36 year career as lecturer and head of the music department, from which he is now retiring.
And the advent of this new phase in his very music-filled life is opening new pathways, new possibilities.}

^{India to Columbiana…}

^{Many years ago Pandit Shivnath Mishra’s wife Pramila Mishra, known by family and friends as “Mataji” began feeling a growing desire to give back some of the blessing that music has given her family so generously over more than three centuries. She especially wanted to help many disadvantaged children in Benares, giving them a link to their native musical traditions that they would not --under normal family or financial circumstances-- be able to access or afford.
So Pramila and her daughters began taking these children into their home not only to teach them music, but also to educate them in other ways as well. As their dedication to this practice persisted over the years, they began to dream of opening a new school, not just to teach the children in Benares, but also to invite and welcome their many friends and musical enthusiasts from Europe, Canada, and the United States and all around the World.}

^{Faith & fear…}

^{And early the following year, on raw land they purchased within ten minutes walking distance from the Ganga River, the Mishra’s broke ground and poured the foundation.
Three years of painstaking work later, and after the many ups and downs of faith and fear that are the building blocks of dreams, the doors of the school are open from 2007.
With the season of harvest and thanksgiving underway, in Northern climes of fruitful plenty, many years of work and a few turns of good fortune are coming to fruition.
And all give thanks.
And not least of these we might also mention:
The new Academy of Classical Indian Music, dream and love-child of Pramila & Shivnath Mishra, and of their kith and kin in kind, will open its door’s for the first time in Varanasi, India.

The school is open as 12 months in year}

^{And then some…}

^{It was by the “grace of God” that the school was created, said Deobrat Mishra (also known as “Debu”) disciple and leading exponent of Pandit Shivnath Mishra’s unique instrumental style.
But knowing the long years of hard work and perseverance that were part of it, it would probably be more accurate to say:
‘It was by the grace of God, and then some.’}

^{Outside and inside…}

^{_{In the nurturing and supportive home-like atmosphere of the new school, people interested in this cultural and musical pilgrimage will experience the focused practice and pleasure of studying and experiencing this music in its native setting, learning to appreciate and/or express more and more of its myriad nuance and subtlety.
A five minute walk away from the Ganga River, in the heart of one of the most ancient cities in the world, participants in this adventure will have an opportunity to explore the unique melding of Persian and Hindustani influences that are at the core of North Indian classical music & culture; listening to and experiencing it in it’s natural “outside” settings (in which it is part of daily life) to the “inside” of it; the heart and soul from which it comes.}}

^{“At home” in India…}

^{The extended home-like atmosphere of the new school (integrated into the rhythms of home- and work-life in Benares) is an essential part of the well-grounded comfort and intimacy of this local neighborhood and family-centered cultural experience.
The importance of ‘giving-back the gifts’, given to the Mishra family, through centuries of living and loving and preserving this music, is a responsibility that the Mishra family feels deeply committed to.}

^{“Ears to hear”…}

^{If you are interested in Study Programme of Academy so please contcat management as soon as possible, so that the Mishra’s can prepare for the specific interests.}

^{“Raga” the “language of the gods” knows no boundaries or borders, and all are free to respond to its call.
“And for those who have ears to hear” said one wise-man, “let them hear.”}
^*