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"The guiding light of Rashtravani is Dr. Ramier Siva-Nandan or Dr.Shiva for short. He is a man of many parts and excels in each of them" ....."Rashtravani choir was orchestrated. The singers read music from notation sheets placed on stands in front of them; they needed cues when to begin and end because sometimes the whole group sang certain musical phrases and sometimes only a few did; pieces of instrumental music came on, not merely as accompaniment to voices but as separate entities; the articulated sound was sometimes matched with pre-recorded visuals of fractals and other images that moved in consonance with music; the lighting too varied both in colors and brightness to suit the mood. Thus the conductor had a real task to perform. This borrowing from the West made the three-hour programme of classical and folk music very much more interesting. It was a full house with a mixed audience of South Asians and others. India’s High Commissioner Shashi U. Tripathi, who is a musician in her own right, attended the programme. In a speech that was pertinent and short, she encouraged the choir, its leader, and the organizers of the Kabir Centre for undertaking something which was not only entertaining but also a worthy reminder of the region’s fantastic diversity and its unique way to accommodate it and forge healthy alliances"....from the review of Montreal show 2003 by Vijaya Mulay, Montreal, QC | full review | |