Ragleela

Ragleela is an award-winning world music group that unifies the rich heritage of Indian Music and melody with modal occidental music and harmony.  In their original compositions, the sitar tells melodic stories over densely woven guitar patterns, lush violin lines and the grooves of both Indian tablas and world percussion.  

Their dynamic concerts across Canada have left audiences of all ages and styles enchanted and inspired by the lyrical power of their unique musical fusion.

Ragleela was first founded in India in 1990 by sitar maestro Uwe Neumann.  Upon his arrival to Montreal in 2000, he was joined by the guitarist Jean-Marc Hébert and the tablist Shawn Mativetsky thus Ragleela was reborn.  The 2002 album « Caravan » garneted rave reviews in the Montreal press and Ragleela performed since in a wide array of venues.  With their new album « Jai Ma », the members of Ragleela are set out to carry away world music lovers and festival goers into exotic bliss.

Uwe Neumann, Sitar and Sansa

Uwe Neumann, Sitar and Sansa, has lived and studied full time for 10 years in India with the sitarmaestro Pandit Indranil Bhattacharya and received a Bachelors and Master-of-Music Degree on Sitar from Indian University in Shantiniketan. Since 2009 he is having advanced tuition from Sri Partha Bose.
He had studied classical guitar and jazz-rock in Germany 1974-86. He founded Ragleela in 1990 and had many classical, world-music and television concerts all over India, including a unique performance at the Millennium-Concert for H.H. the Dalai Lama in Benares, at the Alliance Francaise in Pondicherry, at the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture with tabla virtuoso Subhen Chatterjee and in the prestigious hall Rabindra-Sadan in Calcutta.
Uwe Neumann arrived in Canada in the year 2000 to share the treasures of this music and gave since then more than 200 concerts with Ragleela, Sitaria and other world music projects like at the Festival Musique Multi Montréal with Radio-Canada recording, Festival "Rhythms of the World" Victoriaville, International Jazz Festival in Montreal with NoEMI, Diversity and Starbelly Festivals in BC with Adham Shaikh, East-meets-West Concert Series at Concordia University, International Jazz Festival in Quebec with NoEMI, Asian Heritage Festival 2002,03,04,05, Performances with tabla virtuoso Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and Kathak-dancer Akram Khan, Salle La Basoche in Gatineau.

Jean-Marc Hébert, Guitar

Jean-Marc Hébert has studied classical guitar at the university in Toronto from 1980-1987 and concentrates on instrumental composition. He is co-founder of the music group Skalène, with whom he already recorded three albums. He performed with this group all over Quebec and on the international scene in Vancouver, New York, Chicago and Vienna. He also worked in collaboration with Caroline Dufour, with whom he recorded her first album.

Jean-Marc Hébert is working with Ragleela since end of 2000 and takes a major role in the new arrangements of the compositions with his astounding sense of harmony.

Shawn Mativetsky

Versatile percussionist Shawn Mativetsky performs in a variety of musical genres with dynamism and skill. Equally at home in Western classical and contemporary/new music, Indian classical music, and world music, Shawn also composes and performs music for dance and theatre. He is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada and internationally. Based in Montreal, Shawn teaches tabla and percussion at McGill University.
Shawn Mativetsky is a ganda-band disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai of the Benares tabla gharana. Shawn holds a Master's degree in music from McGill University and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Marie-Soleil Bélanger, Violin

Marie-Soleil Bélanger, has been performing for years with Richard Desjardins, Yves Desrosiers, Thomas Hellman and Jeszcze Raz and can be heard on CDs of Lhasa de Sela, Plume Latraverse, Dobacaracol, Pierre Lapointe and of course with Richard Desjardins.

Eric Breton, Percussion

Eric Breton plays in many musical styles (Africa, Maghreb, Brazil, Haiti, Cuba). He recorded with Alain Caron, Michel Cusson, Geneviève Paris and performed with Isabelle Boulay, Luck Mervil, André Gagnon, and Lili Fatale. Presently he shares stages with Gitans de Sarajévo, Perdu l'Nord, Amalgama, Sertao and Ragleela.