Mindia Rhonda Gungee

Exploring Classical Hindustani Music

Wednesday, October 30
Doors open at 6:30pm; Performance is 7:00-8:00pm
$15/members; $20 non-members/$25 at the Door

In celebration of India’s festival of lights, Diwali, join us Wednesday Oct 30th 6:30 pm for an educational exploration into Classical Hindustani Music. 

Featuring a slideshow presentation by Mark Gangadhar Gerhard on the origins and history of Indian music, you will learn about the ancient spiritual foundations of Classical Indian music, the split between Northern and Southern traditions and the evolution of the musical instruments. 

At the heart of the evening will be a demonstration concert with expert musicians described below.  You will participate, keeping the tala in various rhythms, clapping in cycles of 4, 5 and 7 beats. There will be a collection of a dozen different Indian instruments that participants can try out themselves after the concert.  If you ever wanted to try to strum a sarode, pick a sitar, tickle a tamboura, tap a tabla or pump a harmonium, you won’t want to miss this evening of immersion into the music of North India.

The Musicians

Mindia Devi Klein is an award winning composer, educator and musician.  She sings and performs on bansuri (classical bamboo flute), silver flute and Balinese gamelan. A Fulbright scholar who studied in India and Bali, she is a disciple of musical legend Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Mark Gangadhar Gerhard is a classically trained tabla player with over 50 years of experience performing and recording.  A student of Pandit Shankar Ghosh and Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh, he has toured and played with classical artists such as G.S.Sachdev, Krishna Mohan Bhatt, Steve Oda and Peter Van Gelder.  He speaks Hindi, lived in India and was a founding member of the kirtan group Amazing Grace featuring Jai Uttal and Krishna Das. He has performed at UC Zellerbach with Allen Ginsburg and Winterland with Ram Dass and friends.  Beyond his music, he is a teacher and artist with a degree in Fine Arts from UC Berkeley.

Rhonda Gerhard is a certified iRest®/Yoga Nidra teacher and retired psychotherapist.  She learned to play tamboura from Peter Van Gelder, who played beside Ali Akbar Khan for many years.  She is a founding member of the kirtan group Sacred Caravan and has performed at countless Indian weddings and festivals for several decades.

Rhonda and Mark are Petaluma residents and founding members of the Petaluma Arts Center.