Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 18: Santoor maestro Pandit Bhajan Sopori today said the on-going 11-day music festival in Kashmir is an attempt to take music to the masses and provide the youth with a platform to showcase their talent as well as to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the state.
“We want to take the music to the masses and let them understand our culture as well as create avenues for absorbing talent. It is my inner desire and it is the aim of the festival,” Sopori told reporters here.
The SaMaPa Festival, organized by Sopori Academy of Music and Performing Arts (SaMaPa), began on Wednesday in Sopore township of north Kashmir s Baramulla district.
The Santoor maestro said there is immense talent in Kashmir but lack of opportunities keeps the youth away from music.
“There is immense talent and we want to provide the youth with a platform to take their talent to other places so that people across the globe get to know our culture and understand it,” Sopori said.
His son Abhay Rustum Sopori lamented that preservation of state’s rich cultural heritage has lagged behind in the priority race, saying the state needs to have right policies for it.
“Somehow, our cultural heritage has lagged behind in the priority race but if we have to move forward, we have to preserve our culture and we have to take our youth along for that. Unfortunately, our youth did not get any stage but we have made plans for them. The state also will have to create policies for cultural preservation.
“We are losing our cultural heritage and SaMaPa Festival is an endeavour to keep it alive. Our aim is to remind our children of our culture and our culture is Kashmiriyat,” Abhay said.
The festival will be held at different places across Kashmir till March 26. More than 150 musicians will participate in around 60 presentations at 16 different venues in this edition of the festival.
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