MUMBAI: Renowned indie-folk artiste Raghu Dixit has received an incredible honour of performing for The Queen of England and The Duke of Edinburgh at the Diamond Jubilee Pageant. The performances will be held on 13 May 2012 at the private grounds of Windsor Castle.
Dixit, the only musician representing India will curate music and dance performance to his song Mysore Se Aayi which will be backed by 70-piece orchestra and twelve dancers from Nritarutya. Mayuri Upadhya from Nritarutya contemporary dance company will choreograph the dance sequences for the special performance.
The show will celebrate the 60 years reign of The Queen of England featuring performances by over 550 horses, dancers, performers and artistes from across the world. The show will be broadcast to over six million viewers in UK and across 240 countries.
Excited about the show Dixit said, “I am overwhelmed at the opportunity to perform for the Queen and the entire Royal Family at the Windsor castle. And with such an impressive line up of artistes from around the world, I’m sure it will be a fantastic evening. We are putting together a music and dance extravaganza with dancers that is being choreographed by Mayuri Upadhya, from Nritarutya, one of India’s best dance companies, who will accompany me on stage along with all the queen’s horses! I still can’t imagine what that will look like!”
Some of the other artistes who will also perform at the Diamond Jubilee Pageant include Grammy nominated Susan Boyle, world renowned American classical violinist David Garrett, Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, leading South African actors from the West End smash hit Disney’s The Lion King who will be joined on stage by the Nairobi Chamber Chorus and Watoto Children’s Choir and classical maestros Il Divo. The narrators for the evening include Dame Helen Mirren, Alan Titchmarsh, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Omid Djalili and Martin Clunes.
As a part of his tour, the folk singer will also perform at ‘The Andrew Marr Show’ on BBC One on the 15 April 2012.
Following the show, The Raghu Dixit Project will also be a part of British Council and Southbank Centre musical rendition ‘A Tale Retold.’ An hour-long musical by Dixit is an Indian folk tale which also includes members of British indie-folk group ‘Bellowhead’ and UK-based Indian classical dancer ‘Gauri Sharma Tripathi.
The play premiering at the Alchemy Festival on 18-19 April in London will feature songs written in English, Hindi and Kannada. The musical will debut in India in January 2013.