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ARTS & CULTURE
KANSAN.COM
Lawrence Arts Center will host benefit concert for Tibetan monks
File Photo/KANSAN
A Tibetan monk paints with colored sand in the Kansas Union Wednesday. The sand painting was put on by Drepung Loseling, a group that is dedicated to the study and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
The Lawrence Arts Center will host a concert of classical Indian music on March 13. This concert will benefit young monks studying in the Chhairo Monastery in the Mustang District of Nepal, as well as the monastery itself. Monks, as is traditional with Tibetan Buddhism, enter the monastery as young as 6 years old. Proceeds will help fund their room and board.
University professors Purnaprajna Bangere and Brandon Draper, along with esteemed Indian musician Amit Kavthekar, will perform a combination of jazz, blues and Indian classical music for a crowd expected to number at least 100.
Lawrence resident Subarna Bhattachan organized the event. Bhattachan, who owns Asian fusion restaurant Zen Zero on Massachusetts Street, came to the United States in the late '80s to attend school at Bethel College in Newton.
He arrived in Lawrence several years later to be with his wife while she was studying at the University.
This is not Bhattachan's first experience with humanitarian work. He and his family, in partnership with California-based nonprofit Restoration Works International, have supported the upper region of Mustang for years. In 2011, Bhattachan coordinated a medical mission to the Mustang District on the northern border of
What we are doing is a cultural preservation, and that is why I feel [the concert] is going to help."
Subarna Bhattachan Event organizer
Nepal, during which 42 volunteers spent four days providing medical care to poor farming communities in the region.
Since monks depend upon alms as part of Buddhist tradition, Bhattachan says his charity work is part of an obligation he has to his home country and its culture.
"What we are doing is a cultural preservation, and that is why I feel [the concert] is going to help," Bhattachan said. "It's also my way of giving back to my community, where I came from, and our village. And mostly it's for cultural preservation."
The concert will be presented in two halves. Bangere, a violinist, will perform the first half with Kavthekar, who plays a South Asian drum called a tabla. They will play a set of classical Indian music, including a few of Bangere's original compositions.
The second half will feature Bangere, Kavthekar and jazz percussionist Draper. Their set will have elements of both Eastern and Western classical music, but Bangere said "fusion" is the wrong word for it.
"It's essentially a new music - which will sound
Indian, it will sound blues, it will sound whatever people identify with — but it's essentially new, both aesthetically as well as mathematically," Bangere said.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at the Lawrence Arts Center's website. Tickets can also be purchased at Zen Zero, La Parilla and Genovese.
- Edited by Samantha Harms
THREE HEADED THURSDAYS: Stiff Middle Fingers, Headlight Rivals, 88er When: March 10, 10 p.m. Where: Replay Lounge Price: $3/21+
Cory Henry Presents:
The Revival w/ Sharp 9
When: March 11, 9 p.m.
Where: The Bottleneck
Price: $13
Daughter w/ WILSEN
When: March 13, 8:30 p.m.
Where: The Granada
Price: $15
March marks the beginning of spring, but it also marks a flock of shows set to come to Lawrence this month. Here's the Kansan's list of shows to see in the next month.
Chad Valley & Blackbird Blackbird w/
Shallou
When: March 21, 8 p.m.
Where: The Riot Room
Price: $12 / 21+
Samantha Fish w/ Katy Guillen and the Girls
When: March 16, 9 p.m.
Where: The Bottleneck
Price: $13
Manateees w/ Wendy Moira
When: March 20
Where: Replay Lounge
Price: $3
▶ HARRISON HIPP
@harrisonhipp
Concerts coming to Lawrence area
Into It. Over It. and The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die w/ The Sidekicks and
Pinegrove When: March 24,7:30 p.m. Where: The Granada Price: $14
Intelligent Sound
Invades Niche: Tom
Richman, LION, Alcalh,
Tione, GEESACE and Peter
Anthony
When: March 26, 9 p.m.
Where: Niche KC — 3611
Broadway St.
Price: $5 / 21+
Tinashe Joyride World Tour
When: March 28, 8 p.m.
Where: The Granada
Price: $22.50
Iration w/ HIRIE, The Expanders and Amp Live When: March 30, 7 p.m. Where: The Granada Price: $20
Gary Clark Jr.
When: March 31, 8 p.m.
Where: The Uptown Theater
Price: $29.50
Murder By Death w/ Tim Barry
When: March 31, 9 p.m.
Where: The Granada
Price: $15
Hospital Ships "Past Is Not A Flood" Release Show w/ Jeff Stolz and No Magic When: March 22,7 p.m. Where: Love Garden Sounds Price: FREE
Edited by Brendan Dzwierzynski
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