Amie & Sangeet Millennium

Artist Information

Biography

ABOUT AMIE
Amie Maciszewski is an American 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 Austin, Texas-based Sangeet Millennium Ensemble, selected among the Top Ten World Music bands in the 2010-11 Austin Chronicle Readers’ Poll. 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 been awarded numerous grants 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 released two CDs in 2007: her solo classical “Light and Legacy” and, leading her Sangeet Millennium Ensemble, “Shimmering.” The latter was selected as a Texas Top Ten in the Austin Chronicle Music Critics’ Poll 2007 year end listings. She appears in the 2008 CD “Lighting the Way” featuring her vocal guru, Padmabhushan Girija Devi. In 2010, she released two new CDs: "Guru Pranam," featuring her traditional sitar music with tabla accompaniment, and "Sangeet Safar," in which she leads her Sangeet Millennium Ensemble's genre-bending world fusion project.

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.

(Watch clips of Amie's classical performance on utube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4E0304hJeo and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV0U0GtP2Yo&feature=related).

Gurus’ Blessings:

“. . . Amelia is one of my most hard working, sincere, and dedicated students. She realizes how deep and spiritual our music is and always tries to convey that in her performance and teaching. She is a very accomplished performer on sitar and a fine teacher and ensemble director of both instrumental and vocal music. . . . “ – Aashish Khan

“Amelia is a very sincere and dedicated disciple of mine whose deep interest in Hindustani music has led to notable understanding, accomplishment and professionalism as a vocal instructor and sitar performer. . . . “ - Dr. Girija Devi

ABOUT THE SANGEET MILLENNIUM ENSEMBLE
A project collective founded in 2006 and led by Amie, the Sangeet Millennium Ensemble fuses traditional Indian music with jazz and other world music. This 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 Sangeet Millennium Ensemble was selected among the Top Ten Best Performing Bands/World Music 2010-11 in the Austin Chronicle Readers' Poll.

The ensemble’s artistic work receives support from the City of Austin and Texas Commission on the Arts, among others. The ensemble’s first CD, “Shimmering,” was selected as a Texas Top Ten in the Austin Chronicle Music Critics’ Poll 2007 year-end listings. Their new CD, "Sangeet Safar," (2010) is available on CD Baby, abstractlogix.com, and at Waterloo Records in Austin, TX.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlfjDyvHr04

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLYhJ6fQRJI – Sangeet Millennium Ensemble – “Jazzy Version of Raga Jog.”

Instrumentation

Amie Maciszewski - sitar, voice, esraj, tanpura

Amie always has a tabla player accompanying her.

With the Sangeet Millennium Ensemble, Amie brings a New World Music sound that features arrangements of original and traditional tunes with Indian, jazz, and other world musicians collaborating. In addition to sitar and tabla, the configuration typically includes flute and/or sax, as well as vocals, guitar, sarode, or 'oud, and more.

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)

Audio samples on my website, www.sangeetmillennium.org, and www.Sonicbids.com/sangeetmillennium

Videos on Utube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLYhJ6fQRJI – Sangeet Millennium Ensemble – “Jazzy Version of Raga Jog.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaeRjHHTKSI - Amie Maciszewski & Paul Klemperer - "Alaap in Raag Saraswati"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVUZiFN-TcQ&feature=player_embedded#
"Raga Marwa"

http://www.nme.com/awards/video/id/XLYhJ6fQRJI/search/maciszewski

http://www.nme.com/awards/video/id/4uU_luSFhVE/search/maciszewski


Film soundtracks:
"One Peace at a Time" (documentary film by Nobelity - www.nobelity.org - 2009)- sitar track in soundtrack

S X SW trailers 2003 - samples on www.cenozoic.com/works

Links

• Facebook
• Sangeet Millennium

Audio

• Baal Govinda
  Listen   Download
• 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
  Listen   Download

Lyrics

• Kesariya
• Marwa - Guru bin gyaan

Video

Waterloo instore 0211

Raag Saraswati alaap - Amie & Paul 020811

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.

Setlist

The four 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 around 40 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

Calendar