Bangladesh Sangeet Sanghatan Sammanay Parisad members present the National Anthem in chorus at the opening ceremony of the two day World Music Day celebration programme at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Thursday. — Snigdha Zaman

The two-day musical programme organised by Alliance Française de Dhaka, to celebrate World Music Day, began with a band show, on Wednesday at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Three promising bands The Bridge, Benziin and Old School covered popular English numbers at the programme. The show began with The Bridge’s presentation. Kuhu and Joistho of the band covered Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’, Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’, Pink’s ‘So what!’, Green Days’ ‘Let me up’ and Kina Grannis’ romantic track ‘Valentine’. The young troupe members’ spontaneous performance entertained the audience at the show. The band’s presentation of the Bangla songs ‘Chaite paro’ and ‘Atota bhalobashi’ also touched the hearts of the audiences.
The presentation of popular tracks of the 60s by Benziin created a storm.  The troupe’s rendition of Beatles’ ‘If you need love’, Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing in the wind’ and Jim Morrison’s ‘Break’ moved the audience with the power of the timeless numbers. 
The last band of the show was Old School, which presented some evergreen Lalon songs and Tagore songs, with Western instruments such as guitars, keyboards and drums.  The audience was stirred when they presented the Lalon song ‘Khachar bhitor achin pakhi’ and ‘Sahoj manush’, with the stentorian voice modulation of the vocalist Mobashher. Tagore’s timeless song ‘Majhe majhe tabo dekha pai’ was also presented with Western instrumentation.  Their performance, however, began with their original number ‘Ajj raatey rupkatha nei’.
The two-day event ended at La Galerie of Alliance Française de Dhaka, in which French students of AFD presented instrumental music on Thursday afternoon.
World Music Day, or Fête de la Musique in French, is a music festival that began in France in 1982. The idea was conceived by French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, in 1981. Since then June 21st has been celebrated every year in more than a hundred countries, in Europe and over the world, as World Music Day.