By Mannu Shahi

Jayshree Music Society, established in 2011 is a non profitable organization that mainly aims to promote and conserve the practice of Eastern Classical Music in our nation.
Though sastriya sangeet has been a communal tradition practiced in most of Eastern Asian territory, nonetheless, its popular western tag makes this musical style more titled towards the Indian heritage.
However, most scholars debate that name Indian Classical Music was preferred for the reason as the music is practiced throughout the Indian Subcontinent i.e. the land surrounded by the Indian Ocean, in all countries including Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and India.
But over the years due to the prominence of Indian artists in the international arena the term started gaining a more exclusive meaning and the contemporary socio-political mentality of this dominant nation didn’t bother to correct this misunderstanding either.
On the other hand, Nepali Sastriya Sangeet isn’t also quite in a state to claim their existence in the global context as well.
This small yet spectacular music scene is totally thriving amidst a tightly knitted number of artists and genuine music patrons who seem to completely be isolated by the mainstream entertainment industry and their rapid fan-followings, leave alone the global high-art industry.
While, young kids coming in the show-biz gain instant fame and earn decent income by just spreading their music, the life-long dedicated classical musicians struggle much more and need to take up side jobs to keep pursuing their life of an authentic artist.
With their top-notch musical caliber, deeper understanding of arts and life, the influence of rasa in their music, their dedication to their instrument which they assume to be an incarnation of Lord Saraswati, their complex music theory that has actually been awed by the most brilliant of western musical minds and their great heritage above all has just blandly been ignored as anything else with a profound meaning by our government and the so-called music enthusiast of the country.
This music that has been in our culture since forever, though not in relation to any ethnicity, has witnessed world-class extraordinary players but the crisis of our society to only admire shallow acts and the government that is only concerned with corruption never had the right medium for exposure of our talents.
In all countries worldwide it’s the government who funds artists especially those linked towards serious artistic revenues but our contemporary society never seems to have time for serious artistic endeavors anymore.
And even though these are difficult times to aspire to become a classical musician, youths from different musical backgrounds who require this sort of creative flavors in their lives aren’t hesitant to devour their life in this discipline.
Jayshree Music Society is a group of such enthusiastic musicians who are disciples of maestro Rabin Lal Shrestha and have been continuously working in this field by providing opportunities of learning and performing for various aspiring artists, honoring the glorified Ustads and Begums of our country and trying to develop a positive relationship between the classical musicians and the society.
Even through this pandemic JMS went online and created a social distancing live performance featuring various respectful classical musicians for social awareness.
They've already featured greats like Suresh Raj Bajracharya, Santosh Bhakta Shrestha, Dr. Ramesh Pokharel, Milan Tandukar, Achyutram Bhandari, Jeevan Ale, Prabhu Raj Dhakal and many more.
And now they've announced an online tabla competition for participants of all-age with the prize of Rs. 10000 and 1 month tabla scholarship in School of Indian Percussion & Music, Austin, USA.
The online form submission deadline is on 14th June 2020 so head over to their social media accounts and support this legitimate enterprise.