It’s a concert I will never forget. Ever. It was the week of my 17th birthday. A celebratory week that included seeing Burton Cummings down at Ontario Place, Jack Jones at the Imperial Room with my mom and dad, and, then, Ravi Shankar at Seneca College’s Minkler Auditorium. (Yes, probably the most musically diverse week I’ve ever had in my life.)

The tickets were given to me by a colleague of my father‘s who was involved in promoting the concert. I admit I was a little curious, but also cautious and not sure what to expect. An evening of classical Indian music? (At the time, I had, in my record collection George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh, a 3-album set recorded at Madison Square Gardens in the early 70s, and Side 1 was all Ravi Shankar, but I had never listened to it.)

I remember asking a friend of mine if she wanted to come with me: “C’mon, it’s close to home, why don’t we check it out…besides, we can always leave at intermission ….” Famous last words. So there we were. Probably the only caucasian girls in the place. It was packed. And, it ended up being probably one of the most extraordinary musical experiences of my life.

Although I was going through the Royal Conservatory system at the time, studying piano, I knew going into it that what I was going to hear wasn’t based on “western” (musical) theory or approach. I did have some kind of idea of what a raga was, but nothing prepared me for the artistry and spell-binding nature of what we experienced. By intermission, when most of the audience had got up and were milling about, going outside for some air on a beautiful May evening, my friend and I were still sitting in our seats, hardly saying a word … just sitting there feeling as if every amount of tension (and dare I say it, negative energy) and been so effortlessly and gently pulled from our limbs … a true sense of overwhelming peace and contentment. Needless to say, we stayed for the second half.

Days after, I remember going back my albums, pulling out Concert for Bangladesh and finally listening to Side 1 … but it wasn’t the same and couldn’t compare to the live experience. Even having said that, I still feel compelled to post a clip below … one that I found where Shankar briefly talks about Indian music and some of the tradition behind it.