Musical performances

On 29 and 30 March, the Auroville Youth choir gave two well-attended end of season performances of western classical music in CRIPA. The programme featured choral classics, with pieces composed many centuries ago, as well as by contemporary composers.

Among other events happening during the Auroville birthday week there was a Bansuri flute recital offered by Aurovilian Chandra in the Matrimandir amphitheatre on Mother’s birthday, 21 February.

In the heart of Auroville’s The Learning Community’s (TLC) base camp, where the gentle whispers of the wind were rustling along with the vibrant hum of creativity, a humble spectacle unfolded during the sacred week of Auroville’s Birthday.

As usual, February has experienced a plethora of cultural and other events. These included performances by the Auroville Choir, an international conference on the revival and promotion of Sanskrit, a four day gathering in Unity Pavilion entitled Toward a Collective Awakening: Experiments in Evolution conceived as a follow-up to the Summit held in Auroville in February 2023 to facilitate consciousness change at a collective, The Auroville Festival – a weeklong festival including discussions on diverse topics and daily cultural performances – the Shakti Kumbh event in Unity Pavilion entitled Regenerative Renaissance of Mother India: Revitalising Bharata Shakti, three conferences on the relationship between spiritual and social life organised by the Pavillon de France, yoga activities, chanting and sound meditation in the Matrimandir Amphitheatre, a chanting and bhajan performance at SAWCHU, and a week of events in Mother’s Flower Garden.

Late February is the busiest time of the year in Auroville’s cultural calendar. This year there was an ‘Auroville Festival’ which took as its theme the first quality of the Mother’s symbol – Sincerity.

Krishna Das is a rock star of the sacred music world, singing the chants that he first heard in Himalayan temples over fifty years ago. On 12 February, his performance at the Matrimandir Amphitheatre opened the Science and Spirituality conference.

The Akademik Genius Brothers brought us back to community theatre with a fun-packed evening to provide our annual dose of theatrical levity.

The 2020 fifth Art for Land exhibition and fundraisers has started with an extraordinary varied programme and offerings. Thirty-one (and counting) events are part of this bounty with a plethora of art pieces for sale.

When Antoine put together a group of female singers in Auroville and began rehearsing two years ago, his initial goal was to “share beauty and emotion” through music.

For three nights in late September, the venerable premises of the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium were invaded by assorted mice, rats and cats who gambolled, strutted, cartwheeled, yawned, danced, insinuated and sang their way across the boards.

On November 27, the Korean Pavilion team organized a Korean evening. It included a Korean new wave music performance by the group Noreum Machi, which visited India to celebrate the opening of the Consulate General of the Republic of South Korea in Chennai.