Amie & Sangeet Millennium

Artist Information

Biography

ABOUT AMIE
Amie Maciszewski is a sitarist who has devoted her adult life to studying, performing, teaching, and promoting North Indian classical music. Amie's performances in North America, India, Europe, and Japan over two decades have received critical acclaim, as have her teaching and research. She directs the acclaimed Austin, Texas-based Sangeet Millennium Ensemble. Passionate about women's rights and creativity, she has co-produced and directed four documentary films about marginalized female musicians from the courtesan lineages of India, two of which won awards at film festivals.

Amie's training in North Indian music includes both formal academic training in India and the U.S. and ongoing traditional study with two leading gurus: Grammy-nominated sarode Maestro Aashish Khan and Hindustani vocal diva Padmabhushan Girija Devi. She received her basic training from the late sitarist Prof. Suresh Misra. Although her performance focus is on sitar playing, she is also an accomplished vocalist and includes singing in some of her presentations.

A Ph.D. in ethnomusicology (University of Texas at Austin), Amie has served as visiting professor and teaching artist on the faculties of the Universities of Colorado, Alberta, Pittsburgh, and Texas, and Indian Music Ensemble Director at the University of Alberta. At the renowned Viswa-Bharati University in Santiniketan, India, she earned the B.Mus. degree in Hindustani instrumental music with highest honors, for which she was awarded a scholarship that helped support her completion of the M. Mus. degree in sitar performance.

She has received numerous grants and awards for her work as a performer, teaching artist, ensemble director, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. She is a selected artist on the Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster and Mid-America Arts Alliance, an empaneled artist on the India World Cultural Forum, a Cultural Contractor with the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division, and a Visiting Musician-Researcher at ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, India.

She began her professional music career in her native New Mexico (USA), where she served as a New Mexico Arts Division Artist-in-Residence from 1986 to 1991, after her return from her initial stint in India.

Amie's music has been hailed “mesmerizing” in Austin’s world music scene and “enchanting” in India.

Her soundtrack appears on Cenozoic Studios’ popular “Naan Wayne & Masala,” 2003 S X SW Festival Trailers as well as the Nobelity Project’s critically acclaimed documentary film “One Peace at a Time” (2009). Her online and DVD tutorials on the fundamentals of sitar, Hindustani voice, and raga are internationally lauded. She has release four CDs, two of her classical sitar music, and two with her Sangeet Millennium Ensemble.

Amie resides primarily in Austin, TX, where she teaches sitar and Hindustani vocal lessons to students of all ages and performs gives workshops and lecture-demonstrations frequently in the region. She travels to India nearly every year to study with her gurus and continue her advocacy research with socially marginalized musicians.

She has published several articles in journals and books and produced four films documenting her research with courtesan musicians in India, which have screened at festivals and conferences in North America, India, and Europe.

AMIE & SANGEET MILLENNIUM

Sangeet Millennium Ensemble fuses North Indian music marked by the exciting sounds of the long necked string instrument, the sitar, made famous by Ravi Shankar, accompanied by the saxophone, Indian tabla drums, and sometimes bass and Indian vocals. To hear the saxophone play the slides and oscillations so characteristic of Indian music is both familiar to jazz fans and wonderfully new. The group blends the two styles together, creating both a contemporary sound and one that resonates with earlier fusion groups like Shakti and the work of jazz great Ornette Coleman. Meditating on the unexpected, this collective emits sounds that are at once mesmerizing, lyrical, and bizarre.

A project founded in 2006 and led by sitarist and ethnomusicologist Dr. Amie Maciszewski, the Sangeet Millennium Ensemble's work follows the precedent set by by her guru, Sarode Maestro Aashish Khan, and his elders, in which players of diverse instruments collaborate to compose, arrange, and perform loosely structured pieces, often based on classical raags, allowing for considerable improvisation.

The ensemble’s artistic work receives support from the City of Austin, Texas Commission on the Arts, and Mid-America Arts Alliance, among others. The Ensemble has released two CDs: Shimmering (2007), nominated Texas Top Ten by the Austin Chronicle Critics' Poll, and Sangeet Safar, which helped earn them selection among Austin's Top Ten World Music Bands in 2010-11 by the Chronicle Readers' Poll. They are currently working on an EP, ultimately to be part of a CD.

Instrumentation

Paul Klemperer - Saxophone
Shiv Naimpally - Percussion, Tabla
Madhura Chakrabarti - voice, Harmonium, Tanpura
David Marsden - Bass Guitar

Discography

CDs, available on CD Baby:
Sangeet Millennium Ensemble's "Sangeet Safar" (Sangeet Millennium Productions, 2010) - my Indo-jazz fusion project's latest release which blends and bends genres including Hindustani classical, light-classical, and folk music and jazz. Saxophonist Paul Klemperer and tabla player Shiv Naimpally join me. Bassist Jay Srinivasan makes a guest appearance on one track. Material includes both live and studio recording. Two tracks from this CD are streaming on this EPK.

"Guru Pranam" (Sangeet Millennium Productions, 2010) - My classical sitar performance recorded live in concert at Sangeet Research Academy, 2009 (with Swapan Mukherjee - tabla). One track from this CD is streaming on this EPK.

"Lighting the Way: Padmabhushan Girija Devi" (Hindustani vocal diva). I provide backup vocals and play tanpura on this CD recorded live in concert in Austin, TX (Horizon Pvt. Ltd., 2008). Other artists: Pandit Anandagopal Bandhyapadhay - tabla, Rupan Sarkar - vocals, Amzad Rahman - harmonium.

"Shimmering" - The Sangeet Millennium Ensemble's first CD, nominated for Texas Top Ten for 2007-08 by the Austin Chronicle Critics' Poll (2007). Joining me are Alex Coke on sax and flutes, Bruce Saunders on guitar, Subrata Bhattacharya on tabla, and Naga Valli on vocals.

"Light and Legacy" - My classical sitar performance, with Rohan Singh Bhogal on tabla, recorded live in concert at The University of Alberta Convocation Hall (2007).

Other recordings & tracks:

Boardworks KS4 Music - World Music (Oxford, UK, 2008) - commissioned recording of sitar performance with Shiv Naimpally on tabla as part of educational package

"Naad Samudra" - solo CD with Ojas Joshi on tabla (2002)

Official Website

http://www.sonicbids.com/sangeetmillennium

Links

• Facebook
• Sangeet Millennium

Audio

• Kirwani Without You
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• mix4
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• Inversion
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• Charukkeshi deepchandi
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• Baal Govinda
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• Chandrakauns5
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• Kesariya
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• Hamsa5
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• Jazzy Raga Jogh
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• Marwa medium speed and fast gat
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Lyrics

• Kesariya
• Marwa - Guru bin gyaan

Video

Megh

Durga

Photo Gallery

Press

• Amie - under the spell of Indian music
  

  " . . . Amie's sitar playing enchanted everyone. . . . " 13 Dec. 2009.

• Listen to my words, Oh Queen Radha [+ Show ]
  

  " . . . at the the programme arranged by Rotary Club of Dhanbad . . . Amie charmed the audience with..." . . . at the the programme arranged by Rotary Club of Dhanbad . . . Amie charmed the audience with her classical songs . . .one by one she sang beautiful songs in Hindi and Bhojpuri. Not only that--Amie also earned the audience's admiration with her sitar playing . . . " 13 Dec. 2009.

• A sitar and tabla duet at CFI [+ Show ]
  

  "Amie Maciszewski presented examples of India's diverse gharanas on sitar . . . the audience applaud..."Amie Maciszewski presented examples of India's diverse gharanas on sitar . . . the audience applauded each rendition . . . " 14 Dec. 2009.
  

• Critics Poll - music [+ Show ]
  

  CDs - Texas Top 10s #1 The Sangeet Millennium Ensemble featuring Amelia Maciszewski, Shimmering ...CDs - Texas Top 10s
  
  #1 The Sangeet Millennium Ensemble featuring Amelia Maciszewski, Shimmering
  - David Lynch

• Live shot - Monterey Pop Tribute, Threadgill's World HQ, June 17, 07 [+ Show ]
  

  . . . Sunday's local 40th anniversary tribute to the Monterey International Pop Festival boasted nu... . . . Sunday's local 40th anniversary tribute to the Monterey International Pop Festival boasted numerous standout performances . . . Sitarist Amie Maciszewski opened with a mesmerizing nod to Ravi Shankar's seminal Monterey set . . .

• Chronicler of a Dying Tradition [+ Show ]
  

  But when she sits with her sitar, it is her honesty that rings the loudest. The horns of buses sp...But when she sits with her sitar, it is her honesty that rings the loudest.
  
  The horns of buses speeding by, the crackle of the microphone, or the long interface that she had to take part in immediately before her performance could have been excuses enough for concentration faltering during the alaap (of raag shyamkalyan). But Amelia would have none of that. Even as listeners at the Srijan rooftop come forward to congratulate her for what ended as a wonderful recital, she keeps reminding herself and others that it should have started better.
  
  

• An evening of instrumental music as tribute to Gurudev [Rabindranath Tagore] [+ Show ]
  

  " . . . The second and final performance was by Dr. Amelia Maciszewski. . . . the sounds she coaxed ..." . . . The second and final performance was by Dr. Amelia Maciszewski. . . . the sounds she coaxed from her sitar continued to resound in the hearts and minds of the listeners. . . ." 26 May 2011, New Delhi India.

• Monsoon Festivals. Weekly update by Meena Banerjee - Wednesday Recital [+ Show ]
  

  " . . . (August 8) sitar exponent Dr Amelia Maciszewski (Amie) from the US, who is a senior disciple..." . . . (August 8) sitar exponent Dr Amelia Maciszewski (Amie) from the US, who is a senior disciple of Ustad Ashish Khan and Dr Girija Devi, offered her interpretation of raga Desh and a traditional kajri-based dhun. She displayed an eye for symmetry and a systematic pattern of layakari along with good melodic sense. . . . "

Setlist

The four-to-five-member Amie & Sangeet Millennium, aka the Sangeet Millennium Ensemble, fuses Indian with jazz music, performing arrangements and improvisations of both traditional Indian melodies and original “new world music.” Tunes typically last 5 to 12 minutes, and each set is 40-50 minutes.

In her classical mode, Amie plays traditional Indian ragas on sitar, and sometimes sings, with tabla accompaniment, typically beginning with a slow intro (alap), moving into compositions accompanied by tabla (gat). The tabla takes short solos throughout, but there may be an extended solo as well. The first set can be 30 to 60 minutes long, followed by, say, a 30 to 45 minute set in which we play several shorter, light-classical and/or folk pieces.

Basic Requirements

PDF Rider

Sangeet Millennium rate sheet

Calendar