SWAN (“Swar-Yatra” Artist Association of Nigeria) performed a live orchestra on 21st October 2018 at Darlington Hall in Ilupeju, Lagos. The program was named as “Era of Melody Queens” and it was dedicated to the prominent Lady Singers from India. The event was house-full, and over 500 audience enjoyed various performances with the live music. It was very well appreciated by the Indian Community.
SWAR-YATRA means Musical Journey. Though SWAN is recently registered as a cultural association, it’s Musical Journey started back in 2015. Some like-minded Music Lovers from different states of India who are working in Lagos came together to be part of this Journey. The idea was to foster & cherish distinctive music of India. All the members of SWAN are working professionals in Lagos & they dedicate their weekends for Swar-Yatra rehearsals and programs. Swar-Yatra that was started with just 3 founders named Mr. Shrirang Awadhani, Mrs. Pallavi Sankhe and Mr. Sudhir Sankhe now has a family of 40+ members and is still growing. Swar-Yatra has live band with talented musicians, singers of varied calibers as well as vibrant support team. Some of our artists are properly trained in Music while some are following the Music as a hobby conscientiously.
Since 2015, SWAR-YATRA has successfully arranged many Musical Events including “Swar-Yatra Little Champs” a game show specially arranged for Indian Kids to give them the platform to showcase their talent in Music. The Indian Community had given immense response to this show.
READ ALSO: MV Aureol: The White Swan Of The Lagos Sea
The event was attended by specially invited Nigerian Guests named Mrs. Fatoke and Mrs. Kazim who are staff of the “Al-Wajud Nursery and Primary School” located at Lawanson, Surulere. During this event Swar-Yatra has made its debut of community development activities by donating 50 benches to this school. Few days before this event, some able members and the President of SWAN came up with a gentle thought of helping local community. After brainstorming, all the members agreed to identify a less privileged school which needs some support on development activities. Immediately some members took lead and carried out the survey of some schools and finally decided to start with Al-Wajud School in Surulere.
After the event, a team of Swar-Yatra members visited the School on 25th October to have more interaction with the School Staff and the Students.
Swar-Yatra has unconditional support from few organizations like Aayra (Mrs. Kirti Sudhanshu), Olam (Mr. Sethi), Avanti (Mr. Arvind) etc. Though Swar-Yatra is a young association, it has already taken initiative of helping the local community. Swar-Yatra has resolved to give back to the Society and is committed to put in 100% efforts for making its initiatives successful. Swar-Yatra members believe that helping society is their moral responsibility and they are ready to go extra mile for the same.
SWAN is currently managed by a team of Trustees named Mrs. Pallavi Sankhe (President), Mrs. Shubhra Mulherkar (Vice President), Mr. Joseph Antony (Secretary), Mr. Satyam Chalke (Treasurer), Mr. Shibu George and Mr. Sanjay Deshmukh. The managing team also recognizes the talents of all the artists, especially the gifted ones like Mahesh, Omkar, Prajakta, Manu etc. Another noticeable thing of SWAN is that it is very gender friendly, more of their artists are females!
SWAN wishes to musically entertain Lagosians, not only the Indian Music Lovers but also other communities and to spread its wings outside Lagos in the times to come.
