There are so many upcoming yoga and India-related events, I thought I'd put them all in one place. Due to time constraints, I've mostly just copied the press releases:
September 12, 8pm, Kirtan with Amy and the Ananda Bliss Tribe at YogaNow Gold Coast. More info here
September 19 and 20, 9-5, Eastern Philosophy and Ancient Texts Workshop with A.G. Mohan at YogaNow.
Eastern Philosophy and Ancient Texts: Upanishads, Samkhya, Yoga, Dhammapada
In this 2-day intensive we will start from the oldest texts—the Upanishads—and the most ancient philosophy—Samkhya. The Upanishads are inspirational insights of sages, recorded in Sanskrit, often in verse, from thousands of years in the past. Samkhya is the first systematic Eastern philosophy from which all others, including the teachings of the Buddha, take their origin.
From here we will move on to yoga psychology, based on the most definitive work on yoga, the Yogasutras of Patanjali. Finally, we will delve into the connections of the Dhammapada, the iconic text encapsulating the teachings of the Buddha, with the Yogasutras and Samkhya. More info here and here.
September 20, 3PM: Freedom Symphony: Dr L. Subramaniam & Kavita K. at Harris Theater'
"The Paganini of the Indian Classical Music” Dr. L. Subramaniam with the Chicago Global Orchestra conducted by Maestro Michael Koehler, and renowned Indian Vocalist Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam will come together to perform the “Freedom Symphony”.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness Dr. Subramaniam’s strong melodic and heroic symphonic composition, which uses text from four different Indian languages and will be sung. The Freedom Symphony will feature music favored by Mahatma Gandhi - “Vaishnavo Janatho” and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s patriotic “Song of Freedom”, among other moving texts. The concert will start with the “Bach & Mendelssohn Symphony” and “Nada Priya” renderings by the Orchestra and Dr. Subramaniam. Ambi Subramaniam will also be featured in this performance. More info here.
September 23, 12pm, Rhythms of Rajasthan at Millennium Park. Free! More info here.
September 24, 12 and 1pm, Rahim Alhaj and the Aditya Prakash Ensemble at Millennium Park. Free! More info here.
September 26, 7:30pm, Kirtan with Devi 2000 at Moksha River West. More info here.
September 26, 9pm, Qwaali master Imran Aziz Mian at the Ramada Inn, 780 E. North Avenue in Glendale Heights. For more info call 630-942-9500 or 630-674-1771.
October 10, 8pm, Dandiya 2009 featuring Falguni Pathak in Concert at the Odeum Expo Center, 1033 N. Village Avenue in Villa Park. Celebrate the Durga holiday Navratri and dance the Garba with India's most popular Dandiya singer. From my 2006 Reader review: "Of the estimated 125,000 Indian immigrants living in the Chicago area, approximately half hail from the western state of Gujarat. To celebrate the autumn Hindu festivals of Navratri and Dussehra, Gujaratis perform a dandiya raas, or "dance of swords," in which actors use wooden sticks to re-create the battle between goddess Durga and demon Mahishasura. The dance is generally performed to upbeat folk music dominated by traditional percussion instruments like the dhol, but Falguni Pathak has become India's "dandiya queen" by adding Western instruments. She and her band, Ta-Thaiya, perform both dandiya music and pop songs, a mix that has attracted massive crowds to her live shows in Mumbai. Her dandiya events are part concert, part dance party." For more info, call 773-552-6083.
i want to move to where you live!!!
ReplyDeleteAw, c'mon - you live in paradise!
ReplyDeletethx 4 organizing the visiting musical performances. sometimes it's hard to remember. tomorrow through monday is an amazing festival-the african festival of the arts 51st & cottage grove-washington park-free-totally amazing lineup, although nothing resembling kirtan, still...ahmad jamal & george clinton are nothing to scoff at.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.africanfestivalchicago.com/
Paradise..minus Lots of wonderful India related events!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/global/2009/0921/entrepreneurs-franchising-bikram-yoga-new-twists
ReplyDeleteBikram Choudhury's sweaty techniques are a hit with yoga studios. Now he wants a cut.
What's a yogi's ride of choice? If you're Bikram Choudhury--the short, chiseled and youthfully radiant 62-year-old inventor of "Bikram Yoga"--it could be one of his several dozen Rolls-Royces or Bentleys, fine complements to his 8,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills. His taste in food is more modest: Choudhury says he subsists on one small high-protein meal after midnight and less than three hours of sleep, though he does have an appetite for diamond-encrusted Rolex watches.
Yoga is big business, racking up $5.7 billion in sales last year, and Choudhury has built a cultlike following. As he tells it, he started his first studio in the U.S. in 1972 with the help of President Richard Nixon, who, after following Choudhury's advice for coping with phlebitis (by doing poses and taking near-scalding baths), granted him a U.S. visa (he became a citizen in 2006) and found taxpayer money to build his first three schools.
Choudhury's yoga routine involves a 90-minute series of 26 poses and two breathing exercises performed in 105-degree rooms. About 350 U.S. studios market Bikram Yoga classes--under the condition that instructors survive a nine-week training course hosted by Choudhury's company, Bikram's Yoga College of India. The boot camp includes several steamy sessions per day; graduates say vomiting and/or intravenous rehydration are common (Choudhury claims he's never witnessed either). Recent training costs: $10,500 per session, including $3,000 for room and board in Palm Desert, California. At two sessions a year, each of which draw about 325 trainees, that's $4.9 million in annual revenue. To that add 15 speaking engagements, generating about $20,000 each in ticket sales, plus another few bucks from books and dvds. "I'm a yogi, not a businessman," Choudhury demurs.
Despite the company's name, Choudhury (born in Kolkata and a four-time All-India Yoga Champion) launched his first revenue-generating studio in India in November 2008, through a licensing partnership he inked three years ago with Patrick Wee, the ceo of the True Group. A Bikram Yoga studio sits in a new 60,000-square-foot True Group fitness complex in Mumbai, one of seven such studios in Asia. (The others are in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.) Each time a new one opens, the True Group cuts Choudhury a $100,000 check, and each month Choudhury generates another $5,000 per studio in royalties.
That yogi now wants another revenue stream: franchising fees paid by studios that use his name.