I am delighted to welcome you to Basant Bahar’s 25th anniversary celebration festival. The first Basant Bahar concert was held in San Jose on June 3, 1982 at the residence of one of the founders, Mr. G.S.Satyanarayana, and featured Smt. Lakshmi Shankar. It is with great pleasure and pride that we look forward to celebrating this anniversary. My association with the organization from the very beginning has been both a great privilege and a source of continual joy and satisfaction. Basant Bahar as a group and as a catalyst for interaction between music lovers, has thrived. I am proud of the fact that Basant Bahar has hosted over two hundred and twenty five concerts during this period. Almost all the great performers of our time have been featured in our concerts. This has been made possible through the tireless efforts of volunteers, past and present , who have given their valuable time and effort. We are also grateful to our audiences who have stood by us, encouraged us and supported us.

Basant Bahar started as a fledgling group for lovers of Indian classical music in the San Francisco Bay area. It soon gained a reasonable and growing audience and it always looked forward to the next event, the next venue and the next performer. It is an important measure of our success that the name and activities of Basant Bahar are now familiar to both well known and aspiring exponents of Indian classical music. It is a measure of our reputation and commitment that these musicians repose great confidence in us. They feel free to contact us from India when planning a concert tour even if for the first time and even if they have never been out of India before. With good reason, we would like to think that Basant Bahar will continue to serve the interests of Indian classical music and contribute to the preservation and progress of this great cultural heritage.

The heritage of Indian Classical music reflects the essence of Indian thought and civilization. We are in a time of rapid globalization and mass communication in which cultures tend to be commoditized and homogenized. Like fragile ecosystems, unique art forms that do not have a mass following but that provide granularity of cultural experience are in danger of getting wiped out or marginalized. It is the aim of Basant Bahar to make a humble contribution in saving Indian Classical music from such a fate. Ours is an attempt to preserve what is uniquely precious.

In closing, let us be grateful to all the great composers and the masters who have built and nourished this heritage. They have made our lives infinitely richer. For ‘without music life would be a mistake’.

Basant Bahar looks forward to your continued interest, support and patronage.

Thank you.

Surinder Chowdhury