Concert - 2008

Gharana Music Festival 2008

7,8,9 March 2008

6.30 pm Museum Theatre

7^th March 2008

Hindustani Music on

Sarod

Rajeev Taranath

Tabla Udayaraj Karpur

8^th March 2008

Hindustani Vocal

Sruti Sadolikar

Mr Mangesh Muley Tabla

Mr Ajay Jogelekar Harmonium

9^th March 2008

Nityanand Haldipur Flute

Omkarnath Gulvady Tabla

Internationally acclaimed performer, Rajeev Taranath is today one of the world's leading exponents of the Sarod. A distinguished disciple of Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, his performances masterfully combine the depth and rigor of the tradition of Hindustani classical music with an inspired imagination and emotional intensity.

Hailed a prodigy in Hindustani vocal music, he had been earlier trained by his father Pandit Taranath and other eminent musicians and was a concert and radio artist before he was twenty.

Rajeev has toured extensively as a performer in India, Australia, Europe,Yemen and throughout the U.S. He has also composed music for several nationally and internationally honored Indian films. He is the recipient of the Indian Government's highest award in the arts, the Sangeet Natak Academi Award for 1999-2000,. 1998 he received the prestigious national Award, 'Chowdiah Award for Music' from the Government of Karnataka. the Sangeet Nritya Akademi Award in 1993 and the Karnataka Rajya Prashasti in 1996. In 1980 he was the subject of a documentary made for the television in Eden, Yemen, entitled Finnan Min-Al-Hind (Artist from India).

Rajeev was a Ford Foundation scholar (1989 to 1992) and researched during this period on the Teaching Techniques of the Maihar-Allauddin Gharana. Rajeev has also received guidance from Pandit Ravi Shankar and Shrimati Annapurna Devi. From 1995-2005 he was a member of the music department faculty at the prestigious California Insitute of the Arts in Los Angeles, California.

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Shruti Sadolikar Katkar is the daughter and disciple of Pandit Wamanrao Sadolikar. Pandit Wamanrao Sadolikar was a ‘shishya’ of the legendary pioneer of the Jaipur Atrauli Gharana, Ustad Alladiya Khan Sahib, and his son Ustad Bhurji Khan Saheb. Shruti also trained for twelve years under Ustad Gulubhai Jasdanwala, famed for his repository of rare compositions and complex ragas of the gharana. Shruti continues to learn from Ustad Azizuddin Khan, the son of Bhurji Khan Saheb, even today. Shruti, a graduate from Mumbai University, completed her Masters in Music from SNDT University, winning the Bhaskarbuwa Bakhle prize. She passed "Sangeet Visharad" with distinction and is an ‘A’ Grade artiste in both Akashvani and Doordarshan.

Shruti has participated in all major Sangeet Sammelans in the country. She has been a visiting professor at the Rotterdam Conservatorium – Netherlands and has delivered lec/dems in many universities in India and abroad. Her achievements include a scholarship from Bhulabhai Memorial Institute in 1975, the Kesarbai Kerkar scholarship from NCPA (1976 – 1978), the Homi Bhabha Fellowship from NCPA (1994 – 1996) and "Dagar Gharana Sanman" from the Maharana Mewar Foundation of Udaipur. She has been the recipient of innumerable prizes and awards including the ‘Shanmukha Sangeet Shiromoni’ in 2000. Her noteworthy contributions to Indian music include the ‘Gayaki Raga and Tala’ In that she has sung twenty ragas, two each from the ten thaats set in twenty talas. She has also recorded two volumes of nineteen traditional thumris in over ten talas. Shruti is currently a visiting guru at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy.

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The talented Nityanand Haldipur - ranked among India's leading flautists and a senior disciple of the reclusive genius, Padma Bhushan Smt. Annapurna Devi - represents the pure essence of a highly revered musical heritage.

Born in Bombay in a deeply spiritual family, Nityanand was fortunate to have the right environment for his latent musical talents to blossom. His first guru who initiated him into the art, technique and aesthetics of flute-playing was his father, the late Shri Niranjan Haldipur - a senior disciple of the renowned flute maestro, the late Pandit Pannalal Ghosh. The warm soothing sounds of the bamboo flute were an early, pervading influence. And for young Nityanand to be attracted to the instrument was only natural.

Over the next two decades, Nityanand's training continued under the late Pandit Chidanand Nagarkar, and Pandit Devendra Murdeshwar, seniormost disciple of late Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, under whom Nityanand perfected his technique. However, it was after 1986, when Padma Bhushan Smt. Annapurna Devi - doyen of the Senia-Maihar gharana - and daughter of the legendary Ustad Allauddin Khansaheb (Baba), the fountainhead of the gharana - accepted him as one of her disciples, that Nityanand's talent and musicianship truly flowered. It progressively acquired depth, maturity and a new dimension. The polished tonal grace, rhythmic elegance, and depth as well as lucidity of expression evident in Nityanand's playing are the result of his continuing advanced training and refinement under Smt. Annapurna Devi. To the rigours of such a preeminent tradition, Nityanand has added his own dedication and finesse - through painstaking practice, assiduous assimilation and erudite presentation. Absorbing what is pure, beautiful and dignified in Hindustani classical music, Nityanand has imbibed the difficult grammar, discipline and subtleties of the rich legacy he has inherited. While his Dhrupand-ang alaps and the distinctly formatted jod in the vilambit compositions are serene, contemplative and introspective, his drut renderings are lilting and imbued with a fascinating variety of rhythmic patterns. Nityanand has performed at several music conferences including the SAARC Festival and the Apna Utsav series. Music lovers and critics alike, in India and abroad, have acclaimed his imaginative and haunting rendition of ragas. His performances are replete with unexpected, sweet and breathtaking improvisations. An eclectic musician, Nityanand has kept his mind and ears open to the beat that other styles and cultures have to offer. His rich and extensive repertoire covers a wide canvas: from the pure classical to the experimental fusion.

A regular broadcaster over the Bombay Station of the All India Radio (where he was awarded "Top Grade" artists status) and Doordarshan, Nityanand has participated in the National Programme of Music and the All India Radio Sangeet Sammelan. His music is also available on the Magnasound and Lineage labels.