Rahul Ananda, Max Vandervorst enthrall audiences as AFD celebrates World Music Day
In celebration of World Music Day 2023, a multidisciplinary musical and theatrical performance titled "Made in Bangladesh" by Max Vandervorst of Belgium and Rahul Ananda of Bangladesh was staged Tuesday night at the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka.
Popular Bangladeshi musician and "Joler Gaan" frontman Rahul Ananda and Belgian musician-artist Max Vandervost have collaborated on this multidisciplinary music and theater project celebrating the day.
In this project, they used and merged different parts of the rickshaw and bicycle to create euphonic harmony, enthralling the audience. This project has been in development at Alliance Française de Dhaka premises for the past week as they have worked together to make it a reality.
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The one-hour performance featured a theatrical journey of a boy fascinated with bicycles, as well as a musical battle between Bangladeshi and Belgian artists.
The project is part of the EUNIC cluster in Bangladesh (Alliance Française, Goethe-Institut, British Council, Spanish Embassy, and Embassy of the Netherlands) and the EU Delegation in Bangladesh.
Also sponsored by SUEZ international and I'M Export Ltd, the project's featured artist Max Vandervorst is a composer and inventor of musical instruments. He has put together several performances, showcasing instruments he created using a wide variety of objects as raw material since 1988.
His musical numbers including "Symphony for Abandoned Objects", "Concerto for Two Bicycles", "The Man from Spa", and "The Paper Orchestra", have all been performed numerous times in many different countries including Bangladesh.
The other half of the duo, Rahul Ananda, born in Habiganj in Sylhet, is the lyricist, composer, and vocalist of the vastly popular band 'Joler Gaan' in Bangladesh. The band has garnered polarizing popularity across the country through making new instruments and sometimes customizing foreign ones.
The instruments of Joler Gaan are usually portable and do not require electric wires and jacks. Besides, Rahul Ananda plays the flute, clarinet, and mandola. The fine art graduate is also a freelance visual artist and theater activist.
The event will be followed by another performance today at the French International School of Dhaka.
