My Music Diary

Welcome This evenings concert is hosted by Tabla Alba, a Scottish charity dedicated to the    teaching and sharing of Indian Classical Music. Ramprapanna Bhattacharya comes from an illustrious musical background in Kolkata. Trained by his father Sri Ram Udar Bhattacharya, himself a noted Sitarist, from the age of six he benefited greatly from a musical atmosphere within the family. Ramprapanna's style and musicality led him to the great Guru Pt. Kashinath Mukherjee from whom he learnt since 1997. Presently Ramprapanna is a learning from Pt. Arvind Parikh who had a 60 year association with the great Sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan of the Imdadkani-Etawah Gharana. Ramprapanna is one of the younger generation of Sitar players who is establishing himself as a promising dedicated artiste, his performances have received much praise in India. For more information please visit www.ramprapanna.webs.com Vijay Kangutkar star

Pt. Arvind Parikh speaks on Ustad Vilayat Khan My association with Ustad Vilayat Khan saheb is 60 years old. I first met him in 1943 and he was kind enough to accept me as his student. I had actually come to Bombay from Ahmedabad to audition for All India Radio since I had learnt the sitar for a couple of years. It was sheer chance that, as I got off the train, I bumped into a friend who told me Ustad Vilayat Khan was coming to his house. I was a great admirer of Khan saheb and told my friend I would love to meet him. When Khan saheb heard I was going to audition for the radio in a few hours, he asked me to play for him. He knew I was going to fail because I was just no good. But he still taught me a few compositions. He even phoned the radio station and told them, 'I am sending one of my students. Look after him.' If I had any kind of merit, I should have passed. But I had absolutely no merit whatsoever. Yet, as far as I was concerned, the trip to Bombay was fru

Respected Khansaheb: Two days ago, at midnight, my brother, Satish, called up to say that you are travelling on a flight to freedom, a one-way journey as the sole passenger with no accompanists. My heart ached to realise that your rare appearance by choice has now become a no-show hereafter. Every one who visits this earth has to take this journey mandatorily with no exception even if that person happens to be a great artiste called Ustad Vilayat Khan, “whose music did not merely regale the ‘kansens’ spread across the globe but made their otherwise mundane journey of life comfortable, soothing and filled with pure joy and love”. You seem to be a little surprised as to who this person is, who is writing to you, despite not having met you ever. Khansaheb, the issue is not whether you know me but the fact that there are countless hearts like mine who know you for your munificent gift of melody through your eagerly awaited private and public appearances. This communication to you

Even after days of his passing away, the notes of Ustad Vilayat Khan's Sitar can be heard in the air, says SUNITA BUDDHIRAJA. I was just about five or six years old. My mother would drag me to the annual Shankarlal Music Festival in Delhi, organised in the open air grounds of Modern School. Most of tjem were all-night programmes. Although I have memories of listening to various artistes, I learnt their significance of these artists and their instruments much later. On one such night, I saw a tall gentleman in white kurta and churidaar pajama, holding something like a round box that had a long wooden trunk with a number of metallic strings tied to it. This was my impression of the instrument. My mother told me that the gentleman was Ustad Vilayat Khan and the instrument was Sitar. He took position on the stage and touched the strings of Sitar, creating a whole universe of love, nature and bond. Forty years later I recall that it was the first recital during which

Ustad Vilayat Khan with Enayet Hossain on stage. I have been following this newsgroup and the threads on Ustad Vilayat Khan for some time now...and thought I would share my experiences with him for those of you who truly loved the master...This is my personal experience with him, so please guys, take it with a grain of salt...you can say this is biased...but isnt every perception we have as human beings a bit biased? I came to this the U.S. when I was only 4 years old...My father is a well known music teacher based in he East Coast, Hamid Hossain...My grandfather was a musician in West Bengal, Ustad Kader Buksh...So, I started my learning of the tabla at 6 years...Well, needless to say, I was not very interested in music, especially Indian Classical music...But I was forced to play, it being a family tradition...What changed me was when my dad gave me a recording of Vilayat Khan Sahab at the age of 9...It was the YAMAN recording on the EMI label, which I think was

Programme 16 th July, 2011 09:00am to 09:30am:    Tea/coffee 09:30am to 10:30am:   Inaugural Function 10:30am: to 01:30pm (1 st Session) 1.        Rafat Khan 2.        Ashwin Dalvi 3.        Ramprapanna Bhattacharya 4.        Purvi Parikh 01:30pm To 02:30 pm -   Lunch 02:30pm To 06:30pm  ( 2 nd Session)                                                           1.        Hari Sharma           2.        Varad Bhosale                   3.        Arshad Khan 4.        Sanjay Sant            5.        Nishita Tambe        6.        Pulak Lahiri                         7.        Bhupal Panshikar 8.        Ramkrishna Das 06:30pm to 07:30pm:    Tea/coffee Programme 17 th July, 2011 09:00am to 09:30am:    Tea/coffee 9.30 am to 1.30 pm     (3 rd Session) 1.        Manish Chobey      2.        Rajkumari Priyadarshini Devi   3.        Varsha Sohale       4.        Gunkali Bhos

This article is a part of the small attempt to consolidate all the interviews of Ustad Vilayat Khan, so that his fans and followers get to know more about his musical views and ideas, in his own words. Indian & Foreign Interview – August 1, 1970. USTAD VILAYAT KHAN DREAMS AND DOUBTS OF A CELEBRATED INDIAN MUSICIAN Vilayat Khan speaks chaste Hindi and has a soft manner of speech, very appealing to the ears. And he obviously loves an argument. He grimaces, imitates, with an abandonment of a child involved in a naughty prank. The man behind the musician is a very likable person. The he sat relaxing. His hands busy preparing a ‘pan’. The same sensitive hands which could pluck strings of a sitar and make one almost weep. Reconciliation of two disparate words – one earthy another spiritual – within a single individual. Suddenly I found myself asking: How does it feel to live with so much music within yourself? (The question surprised Vilayat Khan) Extremely painful at

This article is a part of the small attempt to consolidate all the interviews of Ustad Vilayat Khan, so that his fans and followers get to know more about his musical views and ideas, in his own words. Sitar legend's southern passion Ustad Vilayat Khan, legendary sitarist, visited Bangalore in January for a rare concert. In an interview, he spoke about his passion for south Indian music, and all things unpolluted Ustad Vilayat Khan is god to his admirers. It was this feeling of awe that pervaded his concert in Bangalore on January 15. "Do you see how people prepare themselves to listen to me?" he said when we met him at his Windor Manor suite the next day. The concert was, of course, long awaited. The last time he played here was some 15 years ago, and so it was a big event for lovers of his music in Bangalore. Chowdaiah Memorial Hall was full. The city is now famous as India's software capital, and pop and rock shows get more media attention than other