A symphony of vocal, instrumental music

BENGALURU: With some of the biggest names of Hindustani classical music coming together to perform on one stage, the Times Hindustani Music Festival from February 5 to 7 is a rich experience not to be missed. The third and final day of the festival, being held at the Ambedkar Bhawan, will be an interesting melange of instrumental and vocal performances.The evening's first performance will be a vocal and flute jugalbandi by vocalist and composer Pt Ramesh Narayan and flautist Pt Ronu Majumdar at 5pm. Trivandrum based Narayan is one of the few south Indian artistes to have made a successful foray into Hindustani music. Initially trained in Carnatic music, he learnt Hindustani under the tutelage of Pt Jasraj of Mewati gharana. He is also an accomplished sitar player, having trained for it under Satchidananda Phadke, a renowned disciple of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. The musician will be singing alongside Majumdar who has made a name for himself globally as an ace flautist. Beginning his training under his father Dr Bhanu Majumdar, he went on to learn under Pt Ravi Shankar. Nominated for a Grammy in 1996 for Tabula Rasa, a collaborative effort with Bela Fleck, Majumdar's speciality is the Shank Bansuri, a 3-foot-long flute that he himself de signed. He's from the Maihar gharana.
Next will be a djembe and percussion act by Ustad Taufiq Qureshi. Son of the legendary tabla icon Alla Rakha, and brother of ustad Zakir Hussain, Qureshi has created a niche for himself as a versatile percussionist. Following the success of his 2010 world-music album Rhydhun, he developed a language to adapt tabla rhythms to the African djembe. Finally , curtains on the festival will come down with Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma taking the stage for an hour-and-a-half long performance. Credited with making santoor a classical music instrument and taking it to the world through hit albums like Call of the Valley, Feelings, Mountains, he is equally well-known for creating music for popular Hindi films like Lamhe, Chandni and Darr. As a teacher, Panditji has been parting knowledge of the santoor to students from world over for free.
Curated by Vasu Dixit, the festival a Times Red Cell initiative is patronized by TTK Prestige with Phoenix Marketcity and Caravan Craft as co-sponsors. Tickets are available on bookmyshow.com.