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Namaskar! I like to welcome you all in this "Sakshatkar"
show presented by BRTNepal.com. In today's program our guest is
Manose Singh who is world-famous flute player. Before we start to talk I like to show some clips of his flute play.
Please watch this clip and then we will continue our talk.
guest Manose Singh in the show.
Raju: Namaskar and welcome to our show!
Manose: Namaskar to you and to my audience and I wish you all happy 'Dashain' and Tihar'.
Note: Dashain and Tihar are considered as the biggest festivals of Nepalese community.
Raju: Recently you came to Colorado to perform in program called 'Mantra Fest'. Would you like to tell more about this program to our audience?
Manose: 'Mantra Fest' is an interesting program. This program includes touring of 27 cities in US and
Canada within a month. Deva Premal and Miten have combined basic concepts of all major religions of the world including
Buddhism and Hinduism and they have included those concepts into their spiritual music.
They have been doing this for almost 20 years. I met them 10 years ago at San Francisco and
when I listened them I was so much impressed and later we started to work together.
Since then we have been spreading spiritual music around the world and the 'Mantra Fest' is also a part of that.
Raju: We will talk more about your musical career after a while. But right now I want to take you back to your childhood. Could you tell us about your childhood memories?
Manose: My house in Nepal is just in front of Boudhanath. I was lucky to be born in that area. I learned to play flute around
religious area of Boudhanath, Pashupatinath and Guhewswori. At the age of 8. I started to play flute and went to Kirateshwor Music School. My attraction towards flute
was not just because of music. Whenever I played I put my dedication towards god. I feel that I was blessed by Lord Pashupatinath such that I became able to tour around the world and entertain my
audience with my skill.
Raju: You already told us that you got interested into music while growing up in the religious and musical environment of Boudhanath and Pashupatinath but could you tell why you particularly chose flute?
Manose: I felt that there is spiritual power in the sound of flute. And it has power to pread the love.Even lord Krishna chose flute to pread his message of love.
Flute is the only musical instrument played equally in the eastern
and western music. It is a bridge to join western and eastern music. That's why I chose flute.
Raju: So you think its easy to introduce Eastern music in Western society with flute.
Manose: Yes it is easy
Raju: You told earlier that you grew up in the religious and musical environment of Boudhanath and Pashupatinath and got inspired to play flute. Did you learn to play flute from any teacher as well?
Manose: I will tell you one story that happened with me when I was eight years old. One night I was lying down on my bed and there was no light at my house.
Suddenly I heard very unusual yet very melodious sound. That whole night I couldn't sleep, I was just thinking of that sound. I couldn't forget
that sound afterwards. And one day when I listened someone playing flute, I found that the sound of flute was the closest to the sound I
heard that night. Then I got attached to flute so much I couldn't leave it wherever I go.
Raju: Could you tell us more about your musical journey from that point to United States?
Manose: I was so much interested to learn playing flute at that time. One of my friends told me I should visit nearby
"Kirateshwor Music School". I went there and met with my first music teacher "Madan Dev Bhatta" who was very popular for clarinet playing.
Raju: I have heard that Madan Dev Bhatta was disciple of Ustad Bismilla Khan of India.
Manose: Yes he got his training from Ustad Bismilla Khan. He was a personality full of devotion. I think person without devotion a person
made of plastic. I got quite a learning and devotional environment at 'Kirateshwor Music School'. I also got the chance to learn music from
another teacher 'Shambha Dev' at 'Kirateshwor'. I also met teacher 'Homnath'. I got blessings of all those respected music teachers.
Then I started to do musical tour and perform various traditional music of Nepal in Europe and eventually I came to United States about
11 years back.
Raju: After getting in United States you started to work together with several artists and groups like Deva Premal, Jaya Utpal and many more. How do you feel about it?
Manose: Once I came here I found that I had two options for my career. I can either become commercially successful and popular artist
or I can dedicate towards spiritual music and spread the message of love. When I was in Nepal, I had chance to work with person like Guru
Homnath who is famous for his knowledge of classical music and I also had chance to work with rock band like 1974 AD. After thinking for a
while I decided to dedicate my life on spiritual music and god. You can call him Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Allah or by any name but he is the
one and I commit my music towards god. The musical call that I got in my childhood was also the indication that I have to follow the spiritual
path not the commercial one.
Raju: So your association with Deva Premal and Miten was because of your choice of spiritual path?
Manose: Yes. I chose this path not to be commercial and popular but it made me more popular.
Raju: What is the difference between working with Deval Premal and Miten and famous rock band 1974 AD in Nepal other than the self-satisfaction?
Manose: I have not regretted working with 1974 AD. They all are my friends and I still work with them when I visit Nepal and I equally enjoy
working for the spiritual music. But I feel that it is our responsibility to preserve our tradition and culture. It is our responsibility to preserve
our spiritual music. It will be better to make your child learn to play flute rather than give him/her I-phone at very young age.
Raju: We will continue this wonderful talk with Manose Singh again after watching few clips of his performance.
Raju: Welcome back and let's continue this talk. Could you tell us how you feel working with artists like Deva Premal and Miten, Jaya Utpal and John Densmore ?