Deepak Ram
// Composer & FlutistDEEPAK RAM is a composer and flutist from Washington, D.C. Deepak is an incredibly versatile artist who is well known for his evocative performances, collaborations with other musicians, his innovative compositions, and for his excellence as a teacher. His first love is North Indian classical music, where he is a master of the bansuri flute, and an accomplished soloist. Deepak Ram is also the senior disciple of world-renowned bansuri maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. His albums “Blessing” (2002), “Beauty In Diversity” (2003), “Samvad – Conversation” (2005), “Flute For Thought” (2006), “One Breath” (2007), “Steps” (2008), and “Searching For Satyam” (2009) are all available from Golden Horn Records.
Websites: www.deepakram.com and www.goldenhorn.com
Photo: Golden Horn Records
Interview:
In the play “The Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare writes: “The man who hath no music in himself, nor is moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treason, stratagems and spoils.” I believe art and music belong to a parallel universe that the supreme intelligence gifted to us to experience and express.
Essentially, humans always seek to express and celebrate beauty through activities that provide no tangible or material benefit, other than the need for pure expression. This fulfils a natural need we all have to express the aesthetic or beautiful through all forms of art and music. This primordial celebration of beauty cannot be expounded or expressed without inherent love. That unconditional love feeds compassion and forgiveness.
The inherent celebration and sharing of beauty exists in all art-forms. Even when some visual art or modern avant garde music forms express dark emotions or themes, the underlying beauty always emerges. There is a lot of research on the positive effects of music on learning and on both physical and mental health. While this is clearly documented, the non-tangible benefits and its influence on human values are many.
To the serious devotee of art and music, it gives rise to concentration and independent thought, which is why I suspect that many unjust regimes try to control the output of art and music. In my home country of South Africa, where music is the fabric and soul of the people, I experienced many times the sheer power music has to galvanise people to fight for change.
Indian classical music was born in the same paradigm that gave rise to yoga, meditation, and other forms of self-investigation and discovery. Even though it has become a concert art form, it still retains that inherent spirit of yoga or union, and the search for the ultimate truth.
In the pursuit and study of this music, it becomes succinct that one cannot seek, worship, or create beauty without being aware of its destruction. Intense practise of art and music can articulate many facets of nature in a subliminal way, which soon influences one’s thinking and outlook toward life. Like mathematics, art and music can describe aspects of one’s surroundings, but in an elusive way that gives rise to very sharp and unadulterated observation.
The indirect influence on my values was also furnished by my many masters who led me down this path. Also, having my first music lessons at Tolstoy Farm, in the house where Gandhi lived during his stay in South Africa, made me acutely aware of the struggle for human-rights in other countries.
Collaboration with musicians from many different countries has made me a devotee of diversity and the beauty it shares. I constantly search for the perfect sound and phrase, elusive as that is, but am convinced that if I find it, I will know all that is to be known.
“Collaboration with musicians from many different countries, has made me a devotee of diversity and the beauty it shares.”
– Deepak Ram, Composer & Flutist
