INTERVIEW: A Harmonious Legacy – Veena and Devesh Chandra Bring Indian Classical Music to the Capital Region
Photo credit: Mehul Joshi
For over 38 years, Veena Chandra, an internationally acclaimed sitarist and educator, has shared the timeless beauty of Indian classical music with the Capital Region. Born in Dehra Doon, the Valley of the Himalaya Mountain Range on November 30th, 1944, Veena was introduced to music by her father, her first Guru.
Since then, Veena has built a bridge between generations, cultures, and communities. She is the founder and director of the Dance and Music School of India in Latham where she teaches Indian classical music alongside her son and tabla virtuoso, Devesh Chandra. Through their performances, workshops, and outreach, the mother-and-son duo have made this rich musical tradition accessible to audiences of all ages.
Their current four-part workshop is part of the Resonance Series at The Egg in Albany. Curated by Arun Ramamurthy, the Resonance Series highlights styles and sounds from the South Asian subcontinent, exploring their relationships to art and music cultures found here locally and around the world. I had the pleasure to sit in on the third and most recent of these free, family-friendly sessions, and was immediately captivated by the Chandras’ hands-on approach to Indian rhythms, melodies, and improvisation. Speaking with both Veena and Devesh after the workshop, I was able to gain some insight into their mission to preserve Indian classical music for generations to come.
Jody Cowan: It was a pleasure to join your workshop with all of these families and young learners! How important do you find the role of music in both fostering community and connecting with children?
Veena Chandra: I think it's very important for the children, you see. I think they need to have a little exposure like this. The more that people do come out with their children is good because there's not many places for people to bring their children. They don't take them to the concerts and all of that really. This is a free thing, and we allow the kids to be coming in and to be themselves. For their development, their personality development, this is very important for their expressions through the music.
Devesh Chandra: And we talk now, because we're in such an age of like, passive electronics. This is something children can do. They have to learn how to express themselves, through music, through art, and this type of opportunity. And another thing, this is a tradition that's passed down and passed forward from my mother to me. Here sometimes, I feel like kids don't know what to do and things like phones and iPads have taken over everything else.
Veena: The parents are so much in distress and they cannot find control. I think from the beginning, if we can just turn all of that off and put them in the music and dance then everything else becomes more enjoyable. So this is very important for their personality development, and to give them good self confidence, and it will also affect their brain, you know, because music is good for their brains.
Devesh: And we see it firsthand when we go to a school or something, and we play for the students, and then you can see them, just relaxed. And then we ask them,”How do you feel?”, and they're like, “I feel calm. I feel peaceful”. So the music has that effect on them. Our music in particular, Indian classical music, the idea is that it is for your self-development.
Jody: With decades of teaching experience here in the Capital Region, how have you seen Indian classical music evolve in its relevance and accessibility to younger generations?
Veena: I mean, it is available because we've been teaching it and we have it available to any age group. We have this 85 year old gentleman, he’s been coming to our concerts with his wife. And during the COVID time, we did Facebook Live for three years. There was a lady here today, she came from Coxsackie, and she said that she was able to get through this period of pandemic because of our music.
Devesh: [Veena’s] been doing this in the area for 38 years. So I think over time, a lot of the public has seen us and the audience has just developed that way, also there's more Indian community in the area now. In general though, I think in the Capital Region, because she's been doing this for so long, a lot of people do know about Indian classical music and have experienced it in some way.
I mean, we do a number of projects. We do this family circle obviously, which is wonderful. And we do another project where we play at various farmers markets, malls, and libraries so many people get to experience it on a different level.
Veena: I also invite artists from India; I was lucky to have two artists coming this year so far. One was in May at the Hindu temple, and another one last month at Skidmore College where I invited a major dancer and we played live music. It was wonderful! We were just at Bennington College too. This year, we also just went into all the Schenectady schools, every single one of them, and a couple of other community areas in Schenectady. Devesh: It was a project made possible by The National Endowment for the Arts and it's called Our Town project. It was a citywide initiative in Schenectady, and the idea was to bring these sorts of Indian traditions to the kids. Schenectady in particular has a large Guyanese population, of which their ancestry is Indian.
Jody: Most people are probably familiar with the musical instrument and sounds of the sitar. Devesh, how do you find the tabla resonates with audiences, and what methods have you found effective in showcasing this instrument?
Devesh: The biggest thing I tell audiences is that what we play, the music that I'm playing and that my mom is playing, it's been taught and passed down as an oral tradition. So it's passed down generation to generation by speaking it – and that's for the melodies, but it's also for the rhythms. So, everything that I play I can say, and when I can show an audience the correlation between “this is the word Na”, and then the sound sounds like that, and “Ha” which sounds like this, they understand then that it is a language, and that the rhythm is a language that you can speak!
The tabla has this unique sound, that's different but is familiar. I think it’s the rhythm people resonate with. Unlike a lot of drums, they also walk a line between melody and rhythm. I can do melodic things on the tabla too, which is different. They are found in some popular music and songs. Specifically, Bollywood film scores have a lot of tablas. I would say, in the older films especially, a lot of the Bollywood songs were based on ragas, those traditional melodies and rhythms. Today it is a little bit less, but occasionally, you still find it.
Jody: You two perform and teach together often. What unique joys and challenges come with working together as a mother and son duo?
Veena: (Laughs) We are a very good duo. I know when he wants to play more, then I give him that cue, you know, and he goes on.
Devesh: We get along well. I mean I grew up doing this with her so we would sort of build together.
Veena: But I tell him as well, “I'm gonna do this, apply for this grant, that grant, etc.”. I'm into it because I see he is going to be a full time musician and he needs money coming in.
We also have an apprenticeship program in which we have a couple of students that we have brought on. So they get a little money, we get money to teach them, and all of that. It’s very rewarding.
Devesh: We even go and teach at Williams College together. We get to drive, and do everything really together. It's nice that we're doing something more impactful for the community, rather than doing, you know, 100 concerts where we're going around the country and performing and leaving and performing and leaving, which we do also, but it is nice to go into schools, to see the kids, to know that we did something today that was really good for them. They may not hear this music ever again, right? And then to get to do a project where we're back and we see them, and then these kids are hugging [my mom] and saying, “Oh, thank you for coming”. They're so happy and it's something they didn't know existed, really, until they heard it – until we came and did it. Then they see, obviously, our relationship is on the stage for you to see. Everything comes on the stage.
Jody: Veena, I know your father played an integral role in your musical foundation. How do you see his influence in your teaching and performance today?
Veena: Oh, well he's the one actually who got me into the music, you know, because he named me Veena. Veena, which is a musical instrument, is the predecessor of sitar. When I was born, I think he was too much into music at that point. He was young and he carried his sitar up in the mountains where he was. He was working for his department so he would be placed in a very boondock area up in mountains or somewhere where there is nothing. He would light a candle, and he would be playing at night. I would sit there listening, and when he said he was done, I would still be sitting there quietly waiting for more to come.
Then he would set us up, on a Sunday morning, with a harmonium and a tabla, me and my brother, and we would be just playing the whole day. He would show me a little bit, but he didn't have to teach me too much. That's one thing for sure, because I was interested in it, so I would be doing it myself. I know that when it came to learning sitar, I was like 10 or 11 years old, and I would pick up the sitar that he had and I would do something with my other brothers and sisters. I would just play something, or imagine that I'm playing a concert or something like that, and then maybe break a string and put it back like that. And I would never tell him, but he would realize that, you know, that's time for me to get proper training. So, he's the one who got me into it and moved that wheel so much that I'm still going non-stop with music today. This is music that teaches you discipline and how to treat your teachers and your elders.These students, they have to learn what discipline is. People didn't teach them! We are teaching students right now. We have everything open. People complain like “Why are you teaching for free? Why are you playing for free?” You know, because this music is for the human savior. This is for the human service. It gives us more satisfaction to share it with the audience. I call it a triple A, you know, which is where art, and artists become one, and then the audience becomes one with that.
Jody: Your workshop series has brought Indian classical music and dance here to the Egg. How has each session built on the one before and what can audiences expect from the final session on December 8th?
Devesh: Yes, it's been wonderful! We have to thank Arun Ramamurthy and Diane Eber from The Egg and the entire team that has helped organize and put this series together. Our music is improvised, we keep it open to who the audience is, and we try to cater each session to who comes. So, when we get returning people, then we build on what we taught them last time. If we get a mostly new crowd, then we have to go back and teach them fundamentals and try to get to that same point. But there's so much to teach in the session, we try to give you a little bit of everything.
Veena: We hope people returning will get more chances to learn. In these sessions, it's not even a drop in the sea, you know. Indian music is so vast, but at least we create interest and let people know that this is happening in the Capital Region. People can find out where we are, what we are doing here, they get exposure to that, and they can take it from there.
Devesh: We are so glad that The Egg is doing this series, and hopefully we get to do many more. This is great support for our music that I think is happening for the first time, and we are happy to do this because this is our goal, basically, to preserve and promote Indian classical music, to keep it up and to pass it on to the next generation. The music is built on the positive vibrations, and we're here to share that with the community.
As they prepare for the fourth and final Family Circle session on December 8th, Veena and Devesh Chandra invite the community to experience the uplifting vibrations of this ancient art form. Whether you're a seasoned admirer or new to the world of sitar and tabla, this session promises to inspire and engage. The Egg Presents Family Circle #4 with Veena and Devesh Chandra on Sunday, December 8, 2024 at 2:00 pm. Tickets are available at the Egg Box Office and online at https://tickets.theegg.org/