Indian Music Heals the Soul

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and LTV Studios will team up to host “Indian Music To Heal the Soul: A Tribute to Nataraj Vashi and Pravina Mehta” in LTV’s Studio 3 on Sunday, July 9, at 7:30 p.m.

Performers will include Ustad Shafaat Khan on vocals and sitar, Rishy Mehrotra on tabla and Jaspinder Mehrotra will dance to the tunes.

World renowned Indian classical musician Ustad Shafaat Khan debuted at age 11 at the King’s Lynn Festival, England, opened by the Queen Mother. The son of Ustad Imrat Khan and nephew of Ustad Vilayat Khan, he has performed worldwide at many prestigious concert halls, musical festivals and universities all over India, the U.S., Europe, China, Russia and Japan. In the rich history of Indian classical music, Khan is the first known artist to have attained simultaneous excellence in performing sitar, surbahar and Ttbla. Recently, he performed with Stevie Wonder at The Bonnaroo Festival. Some of his CDs have been produced by the celebrated Dr. Deepak Chopra.

This event will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Creative Exchanges: Artists in Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s Address Books,” running through July 30 at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs.

Among the many visual, literary and performing artists whose contact information is recorded in the address books kept by Pollock and Krasner from the early 1950s through the 1960s, the Indian musician Nataraj Vashi and his wife, the dancer Pravina Mehta, left a lasting memento — a copy of their record album, Dances of India, made during their visit to New York City in 1947, when they performed at the Belasco Theater. Pravina was photographed in motion by Herbert Matter. He and his wife, Mercedes, were close friends of Pollock and Krasner, and spent the following summer in a rented house near them in Springs. The Vashis visited the Matters, and it is believed that’s when they met and befriended the Pollocks. The record album, inscribed, “To Lee and Jackson with love,” remains in the Pollock-Krasner House collection and is included in the exhibition.

For information on “Creative Exchanges: Artists in Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s Address Books,” the exhibition at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, 830 Springs-Fireplace Road, East Hampton, visit stonybrook.edu/pkhouse/.

Tickets to “Indian Music To Heal the Soul” start at $30 and can be purchased by visiting ltveh.org/indianmusictohealthesoul. LTV Studios is at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.