CONCERT | Steve Gorn: Music for the Healing of Mind & Body
August 17 @ 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Free
Wallkill River Center for the Arts is pleased to present STEVE GORN: MUSIC FOR THE HEALING OF MIND & BODY as part of our 2025 music series.
Far more than entertainment, music is a portal for mind-body synchronization; a conduit for engagement in ritual, group catharsis, entertainment and a holder of mythology and history. Steve Gorn explores The Transformative Power of Music in words and live performance. Drawing on Indian classical music this will be an offering of music for healing of the mind, body, and soul.
Steve plays Bansuri Bamboo Flute and will be joined for this special collaborative concert by Naren Budhakar playing tabla percussion, dancer Savia Berger, and a special surprise Guest.
Sunday, August, 3 – 5 pm
WRCA Galleries at The Patchett House
232 Ward Street, Montgomery, NY
This event is free and open to the public with a suggested donation of $20/person. Registration – at bottom of event page – is requested but not required.
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About the performers:
Steve Gorn plays Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute in concerts and festivals throughout the world. His gurus are the late bansuri master, Sri Gour Goswami, of Kolkata, and Pandit Raghunath Seth of Mumbai, who he has often accompanied in concert. He has also studied with the late Ustad Z. M. Dagar.
During the past decade Steve has often performed in India, appearing at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Triveni Hall in New Delhi, The Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, NCPA, and The Nehru Center in Mumbai, and numerous other venues. His performance with Pandit Ravi Shankar’s disciple, Barun Kumar Pal, at Kolkata’s Rama Krishna Mission, was televised throughout India. In the New York area, he often performs with Pandit Samir Chatterjee as well as the Darbari Ensemble with sitarist, Allyn Miner and the sarangi master, Ramesh Misra.
Sri Gour Goswami introduced Steve to the vocal (gayaki) style of bansuri that was first introduced by the legendary flutist, Padmabhusan Pannalal Ghosh. As a disciple of this illustrious gharana, the heart of Steve’s playing reflects an attention to meer and gamak and an ‘old world’ rendering of raga which unfolds timelessly and with attention to the rasa, or color of each note and melodic contour.
Since 1996, Steve has continued his study under the illustrious bansuri master, Pandit Raghunath Seth, of Mumbai. Raghunathji’s compositions in numerous ragas, and his performance style are now a prominent feature of Steve’s performances.
Naren Budhakar was born and brought up in the Indian classical music tradition. He began performing Tabla at a young age. A disciple of Tabla Maestro Ustad Shabbir Nisar, Naren has played with prominent instrumentalists, vocalists and dancers including Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Jasraj and Shaed Parvez. Naren is co-director of the East-West School of Music at Ananda Ashram and as a faculty member teaches and performs regularly.
Savia Berger is a dancer, actor, choreographer and teacher based in the Catskills where she began her career with Catskill Ballet Theater. Her dance credits include Feld Ballets, NY, Eglevsky Ballet, Basel Ballet (Switzerland), Les Danse Donsk (choreographer Mark Allen Davis) and many other independent choreographers. She was featured as an actor in Kismet and performed as a dancer in Brigadoon with the New York City Opera. She went on to study voice and acting and became a member of the original Broadway workshop of Fosse (Director Chet Walker) for a year.
Her credits as a choreographer and improvisational dancer include Cy Tombly Dreamhouse, a multi-media evening directed by Marilyn Crispell; collaborations with Peter and Peter (Peter Einhorn, Peter Wetzler) and dancers; and can be seen improvising with Creative Music Studio’s (founders Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, Ornette Coleman) Creative Improvisors Orchestra every month in Kingston, NY.
Savia has also appeared in industrial shows and on film. She is a second generation classical Pilates instructor certified by Romana Kryzanowska and ran her own Dance and Pilates Studio in New Jersey for 8 years. She is happy to be dancing and teaching back in New York.
WRCA’s 2025 concert series has been made possible thanks to the support of:
Wallkill River Center for the Arts programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
