Speakers | Schedule | Sponsors
Speakers
Alok Nayak
Alok has been involved in Indian arts from a very early age, as a student, follower and fan of music and dance. Now, in his role as Director of Development at Milapfest, the UK’s Indian Arts Development Trust, Alok is creating opportunities for young musicians trained in the UK, and in policy making, project developments and new initiatives that help musicians of all backgrounds learn about Indian music. Two unique initiatives he has overseen since their founding, have been Samyo, the UK’s National South Asian Youth Orchestra, and Tarang, The UK’s Indian Classical Music Ensemble.
Alok is also a member of the executive committee of the Music Education Council in the UK.
Ashok Da. Ranade
Ashok Da. Ranade is a Hindustani classical vocalist, musicologist, voice-culture expert, and an ethnomusicologist. He has composed music for plays, documentaries and films. His writings in Marathi and English on music and theatre are widely appreciated and read throughout India and the world. Broad cultural vision, rigorous analysis, clarity and thought provoking presentations are his strengths. He seeks to explore everything that is touched by music.
Dr. Ranade’s publications include: Sangeetache Saundaryashastra (1971), Loksangeetshastra (1975), Stravinskyche Sangeetik Saundaryashastra (1975), On Music and Musicians of Hindoostan (1984), Marathi Stage Music (1986), Maharashtra: Art Music (1989), Keywords and Concepts: Hindustani Classical Music (1990), Music and Drama in India (1991), Indology and Ethnomusicology: Contours of the Indo-British Relationship (1992), Bhashanrang-Vyaspeeth te Rangpeeth (1995), Hindustani Music (1998), and Essays in Indian Ethnomusicology (1998).
He also has audio albums to his credit: Baithakichi Lavani (1989), Devgani (1991), a multimedia album on Gangubai Hangal (1998) and Devi Ahilyabai (2005)- a soundtrack.
Kanwar Sameer
Kanwar Sameer has worked in the media for the last decade. He started his career with writing copy for an ad agency in Delhi. He has also worked with a theatre group where he handled production and coordination.
In 2003, Kanwar Sameer worked as Producer/Content Developer with 93.5 RED FM. Subsequently he began working in the television industry and came on board with APCA (Asia-Pacific Communication Associates- ’04-’05). He has been involved in making music videos, life style programming, corporate films, short films, docu-drama movies.
Following the stint in television, Kanwar Sameer returned to Radio and directed and produced radio serials for AIR. He also launched 95 FM TADKA, Jaipur (Rajasthan Patrika Group) in August 2006 as Project Head-Programming. Since 2006 he has been with Radio Mantra, 91.9 fm (Dainik Jagran Group) as NPH.
Prasad Vanarase
V S alias Prasad Vanarase, born and brought up in Pune, completed his post graduation from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi. He has been involved in theatre activity since his childhood. He was a member of Shishuranjan, Pune – a theatre group working for children. At the age of 16, he founded his own group – Abhijaat Rangabhoomi, Pune in 1985. Since then he has directed more than 50 short plays and full-length plays. He has been involved in Street Theatre to a great extent and has performed around 350 shows of different street plays created on socially relevant issues.
Prasad has worked and been involved in theatre training in Marathi, Hindi, Konkani, Kannada and English theatre. In this capacity he has also been a visiting faculty and guest director at several universities and theatre institutes. He is associated national and international theatre organizations and was the Festival Coordinator for the first Prithvi International Theatre Festival in Pune in the year 2000.
He has won several awards including Award for the Best Director on Experimental Stage for the year 1998 by Natya Darpan, Mumbai and Best Director Award by Kala Gaurav Pratishthan, Pune.
He is working Dean, FLAME School of Performing Arts, Pune.
Sonya Mazumdar
Sonya Mazumdar is a co-founder, producer and CEO of EarthSync, a record label producing high end audio and visual content, based in Chennai, South India. Productions feature traditional music recorded across Asia and Middle East, often in collaboration with other traditional music styles and musicians from across the world. Sonya Mazumdar has a background in design, over 15 years of project management experience, and is a writer and avid traveller.
Sunil Shanbag
Sunil Shanbag, theatre producer/director and television writer/producer, worked as an actor/designer/ assistant director with Satyadev Dubey from 1974 to 1984 on about twenty-five productions. In 1985, Shanbag was one of the founding members and the artistic director of Arpana, a repertory company that has been working consistently till date doing an average of fifty performances a year. Plays directed by him have received wide acclaim.
Shanbag has also been involved in training actors for many years as part of Arpana’s regular activity. He conducted workshops for children and for students working towards a degree in Education at the Mumbai University, and at SNDT University.
Sunil Shanbag has worked closely with contemporary dancer Astad Deboo in creating dance and design concepts for several of his major projects including his work with other creative performers like master puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee, dhrupad singers Ramakant and Umakant Gundecha, and more recently with Thang-ta martial arts performers from Manipur.
Shanbag has worked extensively for television from 1985, developing programme concepts, researching, writing fiction and non-fiction material, and producing programmes, films, and series.
Maihar Raag, a film produced by him, won the National Award in 1994 for Best Non-Fiction Film.
He set up Chrysalis Films as an independent film company in 2000.
An active member for the last three years of Vikalp Films for Freedom, a platform of 300 documentary film makers across India, Sunil Shanbag had been General Secretary of the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association for the period 2005-06.
Vijay Nair
Vijay Nair embarked on his music career at 17 managing rock bands. What started as a hobby became a career in 2002 when he founded Only Much Louder (OML), the first artist management company for indie bands in India. OML launched Counter Culture Records in 2007 and started independent distribution for emerging artists. Babblefish Productions was started in 2008 as the video production arm of OML to help give indie artists a visual identity by developing music videos, documentaries and podcasts. OML Digital is the latest venture based out of Bangalore and focuses on creating direct-to-fan platforms for indie musicians in India.
Over the last 7 years OML has booked artists for over 400 concerts, produced festivals of international repute, released independent artists and established themselves as one of the key players in the Indian music industry.
In 2009 Vijay was the first Indian to win the prestigious British Council International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year award. According to ‘India Today’, he is a young entrepreneur to watch out for. He is currently working with different music export offices and agencies helping them tap into the Indian indie market and break Indian acts across the world.
