Festival of Indian Music 2022

Thought Process

Coming from the country that's called BHARAT MAA (India) following the spiritual path of GANGA MAA (river Ganges) Inspired by the numerous Devis of the religious scriptures of Power (Durga) Knowledge (Saraswati) Wealth (Laxmi) motivated by the Luminaries of the last few centuries like Meera, Kamali and the proud courtesans and also by the girl next door. SAKHI promises to translate the various Avatars and aspects of India womanhood into the great Indian musical forms through voice, percussion, instruments and Dance. "Celebrating womanhood"

Sakhi

consists of all the elements of a musical performance, i.e. voice, instrumental music from North and South Indian musical tradition and dance In respect to musical genres we are looking at;

1. Khayal bandish (lyrics from female perspective) Hindustani and Karnatic
2. Thumri, Dadra, Chaiti, Hori, Kajri
3. Tarana-Thillana
4. Some instrumental presentation where we can use sargams and no lyrics
5. Bhajan (both devotional surrender and strong tandav or Kaali vandana which is strong in nature)
6. Folk
7. A unique composition that portrays women is the signature tune of Sakhi..

Sakhi - her resonance

Sakhi is an initiative to bring together the creative energies of contemporary India's best talent from all streams of art.

Whose language of storytelling is music and the story they tell is of the relevance and perspective of the Indian girl, that has been experienced for centuries now, but never really told musically.

Kaushiki Chakraborty
The journey that started from home under the tutelage of mother ChandanaChakraborty and father AjoyChakrabarty lead to her first major concert at the age of 16, and since then she has grown as a matured musician. Her understanding of femininity is a balance between lilt and power. Her gayaki adequately expresses this balance, as it strides effortlessly across khayal and semi-classical genres and beyond.
The leading female vocalist of her generation and the most deserving in heritor & torchbearer of the Patiala tradition, having had performed at all the leading music festivals in the country and with several foreign tours under her belt.
Awards & Accolades showered galore her way, Kaushiki is a phenomenon in Hindustan music.........

Nandini Shankar
An exceedingly talented & enormously astonishing violinist, Nandini has taken music as a duck takes to water.
Her training began under her illustrious grandmother Padmabhushan Dr. N Rajam and her exemplary mother Dr. Sangeeta Shankar.
Her proficiency on the violin has reached at such a high level that at such a young age has globe trotted the whole world for her performances.
Nandini has been highly applauded by music enthusiasts for being one of the most promising faces of Indian Classical music.

Debbopriya Chatterjee
Debbopriya's quest for the depth & richness of Hindustani classical music, especially the flute brought her to the feet of her Guru the greatest living exponent of Maihar Senia Gharana, the Sun of Flute Padmavibhushan Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
She is one of the only performing women flautists in Hindustani Classical Music. Recipient of the 'Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar by Sangeet Natak Akademy amongst many others

Debbopriya she has been striving to grow as a musician and an adept performer in the purist form.

Bhakti Deshpande
Bhakti began her artistic journey at the early age of 5 under her parents & gurus, Smt. VidyahariDeshpande & Shri. Sunil Deshpande. She is also blessed to have been training under Padmavibhushan. Pt. BirjuMaharajji & Padmashree. Pt. Suresh Talwalkarji since the age of 12. As a repertoire dancer she played leading roles in choreographies that travelled through prestigious platforms across India. While shaping her skills as a dancer, fate opened the doors to nurture Bhakti's acting talent too. Her early endeavours included international short films and as a lead actress in marathi serial, has been Highly appreciated by audiences.

Bhakti's talent has known no bounds.

Savani Talwalkar
Savani belongs to a family which has a great background of Indian Classical music. At a very young age, her father Taalyogi Pt. Suresh Talwalkar as well her mother Pt. Smt. Padma Talwalkar who is a well-known Classical Vocalist of Jaipur Atraoli Tradition, initiated her into 'Tabla'. She has performed as a soloist in india & aboard
Recipient of the 'Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar' by Sangeet Natak Akademy.
Savani is blessed with a very good sense of Rhythm and performs in various Rhythm Cycles.

Mahima Upadhyay
Fondly known as 'The Pakhawaj Girl', she carries a 400 year old legacy of Pakhawaj Parampara. Mahima has received an intense and fine training under the tutelage of her father, the Great Pakhawaj Maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar Upadhyay.
A gold medalist with the presidential award and a national scholarship recipient, she has performed extensively all over India and enthralled music connoisseurs.
Mahima is the 1st female Pakhawaj player in her own traditional family and the state of Bihar.

Purbayan Chatterjee is one of the topmost sitar maestros of the world belongs to the Senia Maihar Gharana founded by Baba Allauddin Khan. His gurus are his father Pt. Parthapratim Chatterjee, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, vocal training from Pt. Ajay Chakraborty and training in tabla from Pt. Anindo Chatterjee.

He is a recipient of Indian president awards, Aditya Vikram Birla award, Rotary international award and many other prestigious awards. Purbayan's music is inspired by the sound of Pt. Nikhil Banerjee His music combines the tone and richness of the Pt. Nikhil Banerjee style and a contemporary touch of his own urbane sensitivity

He has conceptualized the ground-breaking project Shastriya Syndicate - the first Indian Classical Band - Indian Classical band with a contemporary touch, which has performed the world over... The album "Lehar" released by Times Music in 2008 has remained the best-seller for a year and a half.

Purbayan regularly collaborates with the like of Shankar Mahadevan, Ustad Zakir Hussain and the jazz legend Pat Metheny.

Purbayan has several international albums to his credit, apart from many classical albums from top record labels of the world. His album “Leher” and “Stringstruck” are awarded and on the charts.

During the Pandemic, Purbayan with Darshan Doshi, Aditya Srinivasan and Mahesh Raghvan had found "THE FIRST EVER VIRTUAL LIVE CONCERT WITHOUT LATENCY (all musicians are in sync)" with good sound quality and variety of genres. For the First time a set of Musicians in India have figured out how to play Virtually Live and In Sync without Latency with the Engineer Aditya Srinivasan along with the Mahesh Raghavan on iPad have brought this technology.

His new song on the Shiv bhakti name Shiv Shankara was released on 22nd Nov with the iconic and legendary musician Ustad Zakir Hussain and Shankar Mahadevan. This song is trending on top 200 song on itunes.

Purbayan also collaborated with international musicians George Brooks, Pete Lockett and Kunle Ayo and had created a song Sukhino Bhavantu - Prayer for World Peace through World Music. This song was launched by HCL music on their app on World Music Day.

Rakesh Chaurasia, the nephew and child prodigy of flute maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, has a famous name to live up to. Amongst the promising musicians of the second generation, Rakesh has carved a niche for himself, as an accomplished flutist. Incorporating the tradition of his renowned uncle and infusing his personal style, he has evolved a style which while maintaining the purity of the flute manages to capture the attention of the young listeners too. The most accomplished of disciples of his uncle, however, shows all the promise to carry the Chaurasia legacy to new heights.

Rakesh’s flute has matched note and rhythm with wind instruments of other cultures as well as having performed ‘jugalbandis’ with Carnatic and world famous instrumentalists. Rakesh’s forte is in blending his flute without really losing its identity in mixed instruments’ concerts. Rakesh has already globe trotted many times over, enthralling audiences at classical and non-classical concerts .He is also an accomplished studio musician having recorded with most of the leading stalwarts of the Indian film industry.

Rakesh has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades. He received the Indian Music Academy Award, presented by the Honorable President Of India, Dr..A.P.J Abdul Kalam in 2007, the Aditya Birla Kalakiran Puraskar in 2008, the Guru Shishya Award in 2011, IWAP-Pandit Jasraj Sangeet Ratna Award in 2013 and the Pannalal Ghosh Puraskar 2013.

Despite his experimental work, Rakesh has never deviated from his main goal of becoming a full-fledged classical musician. He has regularly appeared in prominent festivals such as the WOMAD festival in Athens, Womad Earthstation in Europe, the ‘Festivals of India’ in Russia, Japan, USA, and Europe, His growing maturity and status has brought him invitations to perform solo at major events within India and abroad, including the Festival of Saint-Denis in Paris and the Leicester International Music Festival in England. Most notably, Rakesh was invited to conclude the twenty-four hour live BBC Radio broadcast celebrating Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee, reaching audiences worldwide.

Recently Rakesh toured as a duo for classical concerts as well as for The Masters of percussion with legendary tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain at some prestigious venues globally. Rakesh has also had the privilege of performing with some international names such as Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Joshua Redman.

Rakesh's most recent venture is his fusion band Rakesh and Friends(RAF) which creates music that appeals to the young without sacrificing the essence of classical music.

Modest Rakesh is the first to admit that he has a lot to learn, not just from his legendary uncle and maestro, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, but his peers too. He is destined to carve a niche for himself in the realm of Indian Classical Music with the simple yet extremely challenging instrument, the Bansuri.

Ojas, a child prodigy in Music born in Chikhli, Maharashtra State. His father, Dr. Yogesh Adhiya, spotted his child’s keen interest in percussion at a tender age of 2 years at Siddha Yoga Guru Swami Muktananda and Gurumayi Chidvilasananda’s chanting and meditation centre. Padmashree Kalyanji recognizing the boy’s talent, Ojas’s father put him under the care of Shri Kalyanji-Anandji Music maestros. Ojas at the age of 5 was sent through Shri Kalyanji bhai to one of his close family friend Shri Mridangraj ji, for Ojas to learn traditional niceties of table playing including accompaniments, thus Ojas became the Gandaa Bandh Shaagird-Disciple of Shri Mridangraj ji at the age of 5.Performances and Prominent Concerts

Ojas’s father decided that he would one day do well in tabla playing and would accompany in future all the top notchers in time to come including solo performance.Ojas was fortunate to travel and perform in ‘Little-Wonders’ programs of Shri Kalyanji-Anandji’s Kalavir Academy for almost 500 stage shows globally with very many distinctions to his credit, few of them to be mentioned are The Limca Book of Records (as the youngest tabla player of India)-1993, Kalavir Academy’s Certificate, Shri Amitabh Bachchan-ji’s Certificate-1995, Recognition from Council Member Mr. Martha J. Wong of Houston Texas-1997, Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre’s Certificate-1998, Pandit V.D Paluskar Award-1998, First-class-First State level Music Competition Award conferred by the Governor of Maharashtra Shri. S.M Krishna-2006, young deserving tabla player award by ITC Kolkata , Promising artiste award by ITC SRA , & many more received Ustad Bismillah khan Yuva Puraskar by Sangeet Natak Academy -2015.Ojas is fortunate to be heard by the living legends Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma ji, the Santoor Maestro and Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia ji, the Flute Maestro, and was also fortunate to play with them. More so, he is also fortunate in accompanying the living legends in Classical and Ghazals viz. Begum Parween Sultana ji, Ustad Rashid Khan Saheb , Pandit Satish Vyas ji, Ustad Rais Khan Saheb, Ustad Shujaat Khan Saheb, Dr. N. Rajan ji , Pandit Bhudhaditya Mukherjee ji, Asha Bhosle ji, Pandit Channulal Mishra ji , Pandit Ajay Pohankar ji, Ustad Hussain Baksh from Pakistan , Shri Hari Haran ji , Shri Pankaj Udhas ji , Shri Anup Jalota ji , Shri Talat Aziz ji , world famous percussionist Sivamani ji , Vikkuvinayakaram ji and many others.Ojas’s mission is to give his excellence in performance and has an esteem to be ‘second to none’ in the field of Indian classical and light music.

Taufiq Qureshi, an ace percussionist of India, referred to as a game changer, is also an acclaimed composer. Taufiq is recognized for his path-breaking and trend-setting work, as a performing artiste and as composer/arranger in the field of world music. Taufiq has been ably successful at taking the nuances of traditional rhythms of India to an alternate form of World Music and offering it to a larger audience, comprising of all age groups and from different parts of the world.

Being the son and disciple of the legendary tabla maestro Ustad Allarakha; Taufiq’s performances showcase the traditional flavour and intricacies of Indian rhythm, interwoven with the sparkle of his phenomenal command over contemporary world percussions.

Taufiq has pioneered and developed a distinct technique of playing the African percussion instrument, Djembe, in the context of Indian rhythmic compositions. It is solely to Taufiq’s credit that today the Djembe is making its presence felt on the music and concert scene in India.

He has designed a new language as a bridge to transpose the traditional Tabla repertoire onto this non Indian instrument. His version of the Djembe is inspiring a whole new breed of percussionists in India.

Taufiq’s trademark style of using his ‘in and out breath’ and incorporating body and vocal percussions, to create unique rhythmic motifs spanning across cultures; has become a trend. His sense of tone and his mastery over a wide variety of percussions adds a unique element to any collaboration and thus enhances a fusion music concert.

Taufiq s album Rhydhun, amongst others is said to be a bench mark for World Music in India way back in the year 2000. Taufiq has been featured as a performing artiste in the 2009 Grammy-Award winning album, 'Global Drum Project'. Taufiq's albums have been released world over and he has performed at prestigious Music festivals all over the globe. He has been a recipient of the Gold Award for the best music at the Cannes Ad Film Festival and at the London International Festival for some of his exemplary advertisement jingles. Taufiq has lent a third dimension to many a chart buster songs and background score tracks of the Indian Film Industry genre of music, by virtue of his inimitable sense of rhythm arrangement and feel for sound.

This exceptionally versatile percussionist, is the worthy torchbearer of a rich legacy of percussion, being the son and disciple of the legendary Ustad Allarakha and brother of the maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain by whom he has been greatly influenced. Taufiq has been fortunate to have received guidance from Ghatam Vidhwan, Pandit Vikku Vinayakram.

Over the last fifteen years, he has been imparting training to deserving students, some of whom are now making their mark and carrying forward his work.

Taufiq continues to evolve as a musician in the ever-inspiring world of music.

Amjad Ali Khan is one of the undisputed masters of the music world. Born to sarod maestro Haafiz Ali Khan, he gave his first performance at the age of six, and is credited with reinventing the technique of playing the sarod. Over the course of a distinguished career spanning more than six decades, Amjad Ali Khan has won numerous accolades including a Grammy nomination, the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum, Unicef’s National Ambassadorship and the Fukuoka Cultural grand prize. He has performed at venues the world over including Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as at the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2014 in Oslo, Norway. Samaagam, his first Sarod Concerto, has been performed by the Britten Sinfonia, Orchestre National d’lle de France, Orchestre d’Auvergne, London Philharmonia, Gulbenkian Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Amjad Ali Khan has also been a visiting professor at Stanford University, University of New Mexico and Jacob’s School of Music. Amjad Ali Khan recently received coveted Global Music Awards under the Gold Medal category for their outstanding contribution to the global music industry and excellence in the classical music sphere. The UN Day Concert 2018 featured Sarod virtuoso Amjad Ali Khan, accompanied by his sons Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, and the Refugee Orchestra Project. The concert dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi was themed on “Traditions of Peace and Non-violence” in the presence of António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations.

Amaan Ali Bangash - is the eldest son and disciple of the Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan and grandson of Haafiz Ali Khan. He belongs to the seventh generation in an unbroken chain of the Senia Bangash School. He was initiated by his father into the fine art of Sarod playing and gave his first public performance at age eight. Amaan’s musical style is marked by its precision in tunefulness, bold and resonant strokes, along with tradition and continuity of Indian Classical Music. Amaan’s performances have evoked creditable applause.

Today, Amaan is considered one of the finest Sarod players in the world and has obtained a very special place for himself among music enthusiasts across continents. He is an inspiration for the younger generation of musicians. He continues to enchant audiences with his virtuosity, sheer brilliance and charismatic stage presence.

Ayaan Ali Bangash - Ayaan Ali Bangash represents the seventh generation of a musical lineage known as the Senia Bangash School. The younger son and disciple of the Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan, Ayaan stepped into the world of music and the Sarod, at a very early age, with confidence, clarity, consistency and technical mastery all of which he learnt at his father's knees. Ayaan gave his solo debut when he was eight years old and has been performing concerts in India and abroad, since then. He has also assisted his illustrious father at concerts all over the world. Over the years today, Ayaan has carved out a special niche for himself in the world of music.

His approach, vision and versatility make him an icon for the youth in the music industry. His contribution in making the Sarod a cross-over instrument in a variety of genres has projected him as an artist of high repute.

Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Slavic masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 16 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Ms. Yankovskaya has led the Chicago premieres of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Joby Talbot’s Everest, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride.

Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year.