Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s concert An Ode to Peace was like bringing God to the surface of this busy life in New York.  To alleviate our worries, remorse and fear in a blissful evening with the relaxed classical music performed on the Sarod and the Tabla.  Everyone present was captivated by the mesmerizing music.  In other words, it was like a ladder to heaven!

An Ode to Peace was an event that took place in the United Nations conference hall arranged by the Permanent Mission of India.  Along with his sons, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan came from Mumbai, India to enthrall New Yorkers by his Sarod mastery.  The purpose of this concert was to honor and pray for the brave people who fell victim of the 9/11 attacks.  The special guest of the show was his Excellency Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, welcomed by the Permanent Representative of India, Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri.  Both Mr. Ki-moon and Mr. Singh spoke in memory of 9/11 and welcomed the Sarod maestros to the stage.  Ban Ki-moon made the most impressive statement by saying, “One language we can all understand: music.”  Before any Indian formal function begins, a lamp lighting ceremony is done by special guests.  The auspicious lighting was done by Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

The musicians picked up their instruments and together began a tuning session.  People were excited to see how the maestros were tuning their masterpieces to reverberate the hall with peace.  Tuning is not all that interesting to listen to, but a person from the audience said, “Tuning session itself makes such a good sound.”  Before they began to their first song, they joined their hands and thanked the audience for their presence to share the night echoing with music together.

When the masters on the stage were ready, they started with a song which was Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite:  “Vaishnava jan to,” composed by a Gujarati poet, Narsinh Mehta, in 15th century.  When Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, along with his sons and the table (drum) player Vijay Ghate, played this music, it gave the audience a benign feeling.  This song being so old had a great significance on educated people today.  It was a small duration of music, but had a great value in it.  In other words, big things come in small packets.  Amjad Ali Khan looked encouragingly to all the other performers on the stage and moved on to the next song composed by Rabindranath Tagore.

The meaning of the song – “Ekla Chalo re (of Rabindranath Tagore)” – was “keep walking ahead, don’t wait for people to follow you.”  One thing I noticed in every song performed in the show was that these performers knew how to interestingly enhance the duration of the music by performing solos.  It would happen that Amjad Ali Khan would play and each of the sons would take turn to follow that rhythm, like a Sarod mastery test!  It was first done with Amaan, who played what Amjad did, with same precision and accuracy.  While the younger, Ayaan, was caught to mess up in one part, but ultimately passed!  According to the situation of the song, the real song did start when the tabla player joined the ‘Sarod test’ and when they all started to play in a coherent rhythm and tune.  At some point of time, Amjadji would let his sons play the part of the song and would file his nails till then and would get back to the music.  Realizing that the audience might be baffled, he announced that he was filing his nails to maintain the bluntness of the nails in order to play the music with precise accuracy.  This shows how this person is drowned in the music to maintain its perfection.

Every performer on the stage had that feeling to maintain the beauty of the music, not only by filing nails, but also by appreciating each other’s hard work in the song.  It happened especially with Vijay Ghate, who always encouraged the three Sarod masters whenever they played.

The approach towards classical music by these maestros was truly made with love, care and dedication for peace, humanity and in memory of the ones who died in 9/11.  Hats off to such type of people who are unique in their performance.  They have achieved perfection not only in music but also in respect in the heart of the audience.