Amjad Ali Khan, sons delight art lovers at Kennedy Center

Washington: Led by Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and his sons, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan, a group of Indian artists enthralled art lovers with their mesmerising performances at the prestigious Kennedy Center here over the weekend.

Khan and his two sons performed on Sarod at a three-day festival "Utsav", the melody of Narsimha Mehta Vaishnava's "Jan to tene re kahiye" and rendered Malkuans raga in its full glory.

"The three-day festival brought the legendary musicians and dancers to the main stream audience venue. It succeeded in bringing to the notice of people of America and Indian Diaspora the eternal beauty of Indian classical dance," well known dance critic Sunil Kothari, one of the attendees from India, told PTI.

The festival was founded by entrepreneur and doctor Sreedhar Potarazu in 2013 to promote traditional Indian music and dance, by giving the country's greatest classical artists a world-class platform to perform.

Organised in collaboration with the US India Business Council, it was flagged off on Friday, October 2 rendering in Gujarati Mahatma Gandhi's favourite bhajan 'Jan to tene re kahiye'.

It was a packed house for dance drama "Don Quixote" presented in Bharatanatyam technique, with dialogues in English and a narrator telling the story of Don Quixote accompanied by his faithful friend Sancho Panza dwells on several fantastic adventures in his quest to save the world.

Choreographed by Sheeth Krishna, "Don Quixote" used mime, music, dance, poetry and dialogues, with backdrops in a seamless manner that was enjoyed by the crowd, which gave the dancers standing ovation.

Carnatic vocalist Sudha Ragunathan was the star performer in the evening with excellent compositions in Khamas raga, and ragam, tanam, pallavi mesmerised the audience.

On Sunday ace violinist Kanyakumari, who began with American National Anthem, led the audience with her compositions with a group of violinists, flutist, kanjra player and brought down the house with her versatile playing of violin and leading the orchestra.

She has accompanied legendary vocalists and including ML Vasant Kuari.

The fest concluded with a stunning Odissi performance by dancer Madhavi Mudgal and her troupe.