Jorhat, Feb. 5: An effort to unite musicians across the globe and an attempt to create a world record will provide an evening's wholesome entertainment to music lovers in Jorhat.
They will witness an international event on February 24 evening, with more than 500 musicians from across the globe playing more than 300 unique instruments, including Indian and northeastern folk instruments.
The event, named A Musical Journey for World Peace, is being organised by Mazumba Media and Entertainment, at the Jorhat District Sports Association ground.
Vocalists will accompany the musicians to present the biggest "non-classical symphony" of its kind in the world.
The performance, to be free for the public, will also vie for a place in the Guinness World Records in the category of "most number of unique instruments used in a musical composition". An adjudicator from the London headquarters of Guinness World Records is scheduled to be present during the performance to judge the claim.
Rupam Sarmah, a computer engineer based in Sacramento, US, originally from here, has composed the music piece and will conduct the performance.
Top Hollywood music composer Allan Roy Scott (lyricist of Top Gun), will also watch the performance.
Rupam is an international award-winning filmmaker and music director.
In 2011, he had bagged the Best Documentary award at the Third International Indian Film Festival in Houston for In Search of God, a film on Majuli.
Rupam moved to the US almost 22 years ago and pursued his passion for music.
He finally made his presence felt on the global circuit through his song, Borgeet with Gospel (mixing tunes of Assamese devotional songs and instruments with English lyrics), which made it to the Grammy nominations in 2006.
The song was from the album My Love is You, a collaborative venture with top music composer Allan Roy Scott, which was also nominated in the Grammy World Contemporary category.
Addressing reporters here today, Rupam said the proposed event is a collaborative effort to bring musicians of the world together with local artistes.
He said the composition for the event, will involve rare instruments from across the globe, including instruments like dhol and khol from Assam.
Rupam said the composition is 30-minute long and includes a variety of styles of music from world folk, classical jazz, Latino, Irish, Chinese and Japanese.
From the Northeast there will be Bihu, borgeet and jhumur.
He said the lyrics, in English, Assamese, Hindi and Bengali, are about world peace, patriotism with the message to love each other. "Going by the world scenario, with bloodshed in every corner of the world, there is a need to foster love for peace and harmony across the globe," Sarmah said.
Allan Roy Scott addressed reporters via video conferencing from the US today: "I am very excited to be a part of the proposed event, which I think will be an amazing experience."
Rupam said a stage, measuring 8,000 square feet, will be prepared. Rehearsals were on since a month and a final one will held a day before the event.