Benefit Concert for Altadena Fire Relief
Saturday, February 15, 2025 @ 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM UTC+0
Saturday, February 15 • 7:30–9:30pm
We present this concert to benefit Paul and Alma Livingstone who lost their home and music studio in the Altadena Fire. Their positivity and significant community work in the arts can help those affected grieve, feel and heal. Read more about their beautiful Soul Force Project here. It is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that promotes changemaking through global music and the arts for all ages. They present live events and community activations around themes of nonviolent action.
Meet the distinguished musicians who will perform:
Paul Livingstone starts off the evening with a bass solo.
International performing artist and activist Paul Livingstone spent a highly formative teenage year initiating his study of music in India, eventually becoming one of the few American disciples of the legendary Pt. Ravi Shankar. He has performed around the US, South Asia, Europe, and Latin America, developing a reputation as a serious proponent of Indian classical raga music. In 2022 Paul completed a 6-month research fellowship researching dhrupad, one of the planet’s oldest living music traditions and performed widely around India.
As a composer, Paul brings a grounded knowledge of tradition to his work. He has composed and recorded for film and television, as well as for numerous live theater and dance productions. He has performed on three Grammy-winning records and is featured on diverse world music and jazz crossover records with artists such as the late Juan Gabriel, Alanis Morrisette, Ricky Kej, Ozomatli, Josef Leimberg, Build an Ark, Tyler Childers and Chrissie Hynde.
Paul leads the Arohi Ensemble and performs regularly as a classical sitarist and world/jazz crossover upright bassist. He is on the music faculty at Glendale Community College as a teacher of Indian and world music ensembles.
The program continues with dhrupad vocals by Sumeet Anand accompanied by Amol Ghode on pakhawaj.
Sumeet Anand Pandey (stage name) is a hereditary musician of the illustrious Darbhanga lineage of vocalists from Bihar in India known particularly for Dhrupad. This is the extant form of Hindustani classical music formalised towards the latter half of the medieval period. Grandson of Padmashri Pandit Siyaram Tiwari and disciple of Pandit Abhay Narayan Mallick (grandnephew and master disciple of Padmashri Pandit Ram Chatur Mallick), Sumeet is professionally active in this field as a performer and teacher for over a decade. 
Amol Ghode belongs to an old and well-known tradition of Pakhawaj players called the Nana Panse tradition. His guru in Pakhawaj, Pt. Vasantrao Ghorpadkar was a renowned and respected Pakhawaj player. Amol continues his learning from Pt. Ghorpadkar’s grandson Shri. Nikhil Ghorpadkar.
Amol got his earliest training in Tabla in Kolhapur, India from Pt. Keshavrao Dharmadhikari and his son Pt. Rajprasad Dharmadhikari. As a young artist, he was honored with a prestigious scholarship from the Govt of India. He is also currently taking lessons in Khyal singing of Gwalior and Agra traditions from Pt. Chandrashekhar Mahajan. He has done sound and music work for films by Kumar Shahani, Gurvinder Singh and Elroy Pinto. Amol lives in San Diego. Hear a sample of his playing here.
