Shubha Mudgal Talks About 'Gift A Concert' And How It Has Helped Artistes During The Pandemic

Whether it is the power and impact of her voice or the unusual approach towards experimentation, Padma Shree awardee Shubha Mudgal has been popular with music lovers across all age groups. Still remembered for iconic classical-modern renditions like ‘Ab Ke Sawan’, ‘Ali More Angana’, Shubha has been focusing on ‘Gift A Concert’ to help artistes make money despite an uncertain future during the ongoing pandemic.

While the pandemic has deterred many performers from staging special performances, Shubha and husband Aneesh Pradhan have allowed them to do exactly that by launching ‘Gift A Concert’ venture. On being asked about the venture, which was launched months back, Shubha says “as an idea, it is great".

“My husband and I have had the fortune of collaborating with artistes for several decades now. When the pandemic hit the world, we were in a state of shock and trauma because we are artistes who are used to performing all the time. Our basic work is to perform for the viewers. That to be taken away was really devastating for all of us. But we also felt that this isn’t something that would go away soon. It will be a while before some solutions are found. And we also felt that perhaps we all need to think of using technology as a way of empowering us even in these devastating times."

While several artistes felt that online space wasn’t really conducive to music making and best for freebies, the husband-wife duo came up with the venture that offered a sustainable revenue model. “My husband Aneesh and I are musicians. As avid listeners of all kinds of music, we felt that we can’t go and listen to any concert right now. So we thought if it is possible for concert and artistes to come to our homes at a time of our selection and on occasions of our selection. We tried it and that’s how ‘Gift A Concert’ came into being. We thought of asking artistes to register with us thereby giving us permission to represent them if anybody wanted such an arrangement. And once they have registered, they decided what they’d like to be paid for such a concert."

Mudgal has also been holding online classes as she adapts to the unprecedented times.

“The first few times when we conducted online classes, I found them incredibly frustrating. Although there are many video conferencing platforms none were structured for music. For instance, these video conferencing platforms reduce the background noise, so when we play the tanpura, that is considered as background noise too, so it starts cutting that out too. So it has been quite a struggle because we had to constantly battle issues like the internet connectivity. But my students are very tech savvy. So learnt a lot from them," she adds.

As part of ‘Gift A Concert’ initiative, two featured artistes Debapriya Adhikary & Samanwaya Sarkar will be staging a performance on November 7. Both Adhikary and Sarkar sound upbeat as they talk about the opportunity.

“It is a privilege to be part of this endeavor. We feel like it is a great effort on their part as they are eminent musicians. They don’t require any special things but are still supporting the contemporary and junior artistes like us. So it is really a grand thing for us," says Debapriya Adhikary.

Sarkar feels the venture will play a significant role in helping artistes, worst hit by the pandemic, to stage performances. “We were supposed to perform in the US. But because of the pandemic 17 concerts were cancelled. I feel this venture is a big social responsibility to the fraternity. Both Shubhaji and Aneesh ji are very generous in launching such a platform and help junior artistes."

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