Naga artistes to perform at Handshake Concert in Vietnam

Dimapur, June 13 (EMN): The 6th International Handshake Concert, 2017, will be held in Vietnam on June 17.

The concert is scheduled to be held on June 17 at Hanoi.

The Handshake Concert, an initiative of the Rattle and Hum Music Society (RHMS), is being organised as part of the celebrations commemorating the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Vietnam and third International Yoga day.

This year’s edition is being organised in collaboration with the Embassy of India and supported by North Eastern Council, Ministry of the DoNER and the Eclectic North East.

Informing this at a press conference held at Dream Cafe in Kohima, officials of RHMS said a total of 18 artistes from the north east along with five officials of the society will be leaving on June 14 to participate in the event.

While stating that there will be no other performers from the mainland India this year, it said it has chosen the best performers from the entire north east region basing on quality, uniqueness, and distinction in their performances ‘to project our identity to the world.’

The selected performers are local performers Polar Lights and Vekhriyi & Vetahulu from Nagaland; Rida and the Musical Folks from Meghalaya, and Charaideo Sanskritik Gosthi from Assam. They will be representing India ‘as there would be no other performers from the country,’ the organisers informed the media on Tuesday.

When enquired about how the concert was impacting artistes in the region, the finance secretary of RHMS, Neingulie Nakhro said that ‘musicians or artistes get the opportunity to launch themselves to expose their culture and talents at the most elite and highest level event which is backed by the embassy.’

The RHMS is a non profit organisation that declares an objective to educate artiste from the field of music, art, dance, theatre and literature of their role in the formation of culture / counter culture. The groups RHMS also strives to provide a platform to artiste to showcase their works of art to facilitate the building of networks, whether artistic or commercial.

Into its tenth year since its inception in the year 2009, Nakhro said it has performed in four major cities of India and six international countries besides the two Handshake Concerts that were held at the Raj Bhavan in Kohima town in 2013 and 2014.

Started with a humble beginning, RHMS officials said the organisation has ‘broaden its wings’ over the years. It has assured to endeavour to promote and launch artistes of the region in the future as much as possible by creating a performance platform and exposure trips to other parts of the world and within.