October 11, 2004
Fourth annual Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture/Film
Screening set for Oct. 17
By Scott Rappaport
UCLA emeritus professor and renowned ethnomusicologist Nazir
Jairazbhoy will be the featured speaker at the fourth annual
Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture set for October 17 at 5:30
p.m. in the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall.
Nazir Jairazbhoye's lecture
is presented by UCSC's Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection.
Photo by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy
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Known as the “father of Indian Ethnomusicology” in
the United States, Jairazbhoy has conducted extensive research
on India’s classical and folk music.
He will speak on the topic: “From Music Room to Talk Room.”
Following the lecture, there will be a live Thumri vocal recital
featuring acclaimed Indian vocalist Purnima Chaudhuri, with
Uttam Chakraborty on tabla, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The lecture and concert will be preceded at 3 p.m. by a screening
of the classic 1958 Satyajit Ray film, The Music Room (Jalsaghar).
An exhibition of Ray’s storyboards, set and costume designs,
posters, and graphic art will also be featured at an Opening
Reception between 1 and 3 p.m. at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery
at Cowell College. All events are free and open to the public.
The 2004 Sidhartha Maitra Memorial Lecture will be presented
by the university’s Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection
as part of UCSC’s 40th anniversary celebration. The lecture
series was established in 2001 by Anuradha Luther Maitra in
honor of her husband, who was a scientist, entrepreneur, and
admirer of the late Indian film director’s work. The Satyajit
Ray Film and Study Collection (Ray FASC) was founded in 1993
to acquire, preserve, and provide scholarly access to Ray’s
films, papers, books, and artwork.
The 1958 Satyajit Ray film, The
Music Room, above, will be screened October 17 at
3 p.m. in the Music Center Recital Hall. Photo courtesy of the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection
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The Maitras have provided endowments to support both Ray FASC
and the study of Indian classical music. Anu Maitra planned
this year’s event to honor the fortuitous intersection
of her husband’s twin passions. She said, “I came
away from a recent screening of Jalsaghar with a crusading
reverence for Ray’s craftsmanship and gratitude to him
for having preserved, for all time, sparkling performances from
the masters of Indian music and dance--Bismillah Khan, Begum
Akhtar, Waheed Khan, and Roshan Kumari.”
Dilip Basu, associate professor of history and director of Ray
FASC at UCSC, noted that plans are being made to celebrate the
50th anniversary of Ray’s work with a festival of his restored
films in Calcutta on December 10-16. Invited guests include
Sonia Gandhi; Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of the Indian Parliament
and president of The Ray Society; Frank Pearson, president of
the Academy of Motion Pictures; M. Fremeaux, artistic director
of the Cannes Film Festival; Salman Rushdie; and Tom Luddy,
producer of Coppola’s Zoetrope Films and director of the
Telluride Film Festival.
Basu said that the festival will then travel to Bangalore
and Delhi in January and March, adding that Ray’s Pather
Panchali and the Apu Trilogy, along with France's favorite
Ray film, The Music Room, will be rescreened at Cannes
and New York’s Museum of Modern Art in May. Later that
month, Pather Panchali and the Apu Trilogy will also
be screened at a fundraising banquet in Silicon Valley.
"At the Silicon Valley banquet, we plan to assemble distinguished
academics, university presidents and chancellors, Silicon Valley
professionals, and Hollywood directors and actors," said
Basu. "We hope President Bill Clinton, a Ray film fan,
will attend the banquet as well."
For more information, call (831) 459-4012 or visit satyajitray.ucsc.edu.
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