Grand Union presents Bengal to Bethnal Green

Ansar Ahmed Ullah
Contributing Editor,Shottobani

London: Grand Union Orchestra is delighted to announce the return of the much loved Bengal to Bethnal Green series this Spring 2023 celebrating their collaborations with Bengali artists and their contribution to music in the UK for many decades.

Grand Union Orchestra will present a series of musical evenings from the heart of East London’s Bengali community. The series of four concerts from February – May 2023 will bring together the Bengali diaspora with other local East End communities in a joyous and transporting series of evenings with music and song led by Yousuf Ali Khan and featuring one of the UK’s foremost Bengali singers Laboni Barua renowned for her versatile vocal performances both in Dhaka and the UK.

Bengal to Bethnal Green is directed by Grand Union’s tabla maestro Yousuf Ali Khan, who has been a long-term collaborator with Tony Haynes, working with Grand Union Orchestra for nearly 30 years. Yousuf comes from the same famous dynasty of musicians as Ali Akhbar Khan and began playing the tabla at age five, later studying in Kolkata. He came to England in 1980 to help set up South Asian music teaching, also developing his international career as a performer and accompanist of choice for South Asian artists visiting the UK.

The series of concerts will also see young British-born Bengali musicians from East London share the stage with core Grand Union professional musicians performing alongside their mentors in the main ensemble.

The first of the series of concerts on February 19th will be a special memorial concert in honour of the late maestro sarod player Shahadat Hossain Khan, a regular guest performer with Grand Union Orchestra whose tragic passing from COVID-19 at the age of 62 in November 2020 was a great loss. The main singer for the 19th February evening will be Laboni Barua.