Kishan Pandya demonstrates the art of jaltarang, an Indian musical form using ceramic or metal bowls tuned with varying volumes of water.
Since 2015, the Memorial Art Gallery has celebrated the private hobbies and creative lives of Rochesterians as part of a series called 糖心传媒淗idden Passions: Inspiring Conversations about Hyphenated Lives.糖心传媒� The program includes presenters from throughout Greater Rochester糖心传媒攊ncluding University faculty, staff, and students糖心传媒攚ho share their stories and ideas about creativity with the community.
Kishan Pandya, a professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Rochester, will kick off the program糖心传媒檚 fourth season with a discussion about his passion for the jaltarang糖心传媒攁s well as a brief performance糖心传媒� at 7 p.m. Friday, October 6, at the Memorial Art Gallery. Read more about Pandya’s passion below. He糖心传媒檒l be joined by Brian Bailey 糖心传媒�09W (PhD), a businessman and music promoter. Entry is $7.50 and includes museum admission.
Kishan Pandya remembers when, as a 12-year-old growing up in India, he discovered the jaltarang while attending an after-school program . 糖心传媒淚 was fascinated,糖心传媒� he recalls.
A musical instrument, the jaltarang consists of a set of porcelain bowls, that are 糖心传媒渢uned糖心传媒� by reducing or adding water. The musician strikes the bowls with bamboo sticks to create a distinct percussive sound糖心传媒攁 ringing, ushered in by a plunk, like that of a xylophone. In Hindi, 糖心传媒渏al糖心传媒� means water and 糖心传媒渢arang糖心传媒� means wave.
Pandya grew up in a musical home. All seven of his older siblings played instruments or sang. He played the jaltarang for pleasure as he grew up, and while attending medical school at Baroda Medical College in Vadodara, India. With no formal training on the instrument, Pandya taught himself to play popular Bollywood songs, which he performed for friends and family, and occasionally with other musicians for social functions.
But he didn糖心传媒檛 have much time for the jaltarang during his career in medicine. For 30 years, he says, he barely touched the instrument. Then, after retiring from clinical practice in 2009, he took it up again.
Shortly after he returned to the instrument, he connected with Eastman School of Music faculty John Beck, a professor emeritus of percussion, and Bill Cahn, an associate professor of percussion, and participated in the Percussion Rochester festival in 2011 with Rohan Krishnamurthy, a graduate student from the Eastman School of Music. They performed an 糖心传媒淚ndian糖心传媒� version of Dave Brubeck糖心传媒檚 hit Take Five.
Since 2009 he has also extended his repertoire beyond Bollywood and into classical and jazz. During the 2014 Rochester Fringe Festival, he performed Antonio Vivaldi糖心传媒檚 聽Concerto for Lute in D major (RV 93), and also the slow movement of the Winter concerto form the Four Seasons with Publick Musick糖心传媒攁 Rochester-based period-instrument ensemble that presents historically informed performances of music from the 17th and 18th centuries and beyond.
And while he gets a lot of personal enjoyment from playing the jaltarang and trying new genres, he also shares his talent with his family, writing and recording a 糖心传媒渄itty,糖心传媒� as he calls it, for each of his grandchildren for their birthdays.
