Hyderabadis pay a rich tribute to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma

Hyderabadis pay a rich tribute to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma

By - TNN

Created: Jun 13, 2022, 19:17 IST

Over the weekend, Hyderabadis experienced soulful Hindustani music at two separate events paying homage to Santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma who passed away recently. He was credited with popularising the santoor as an Indian classical music instrument.

‘AN EVENING OF MAGICAL MELODIES’

On Saturday, a local art and cultural organisation organised a homage to the santoor legend at Sailing Annexe Lawns near Tank Bund. The evening began with the organisers reading out messages sent by Pandit’s children, actor Amitabh Bachchan, director K Vishwanath, singer Shankar Mahadevan and flautist Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia. Dr Shantanu Gokhale, a disciple of Pt. Shivkumar presented a santoor recital in honour of his guru and said, “though he was not physically present amongst us, his memories would be in our thoughts.” Later, Sniti Mishra, a Visharad in Hindustani Classical Music and disciple of Swararanga Dr Damodar Hota of Gwalior Gharana, performed Hindustani vocals and sang Marathi banana and Hindi Ghazals. She has been associated with Indo-Swedish Fusion Jazz band Mynta, percussionist Sivamani, and Louis Banks and performed classical and fusion concerts in India and worldwide. They were accompanied by Rahul Deshpande on harmonium and Harjit Singh on tabla. Over 200 music lovers from the city attended and paid their tributes.

‘ART FRAT RELISH SOULFUL SANTOOR RECITAL’
On Sunday, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) collaborated with a popular arts organisation from the city to present ‘Swaranjali’, a tribute to Pt Shivkumar at Kachiguda. Shruti Adhikari, the first female Santoorist of India and granddaughter of Gaayan Acharya Pandit Balabahi Umedkar, the last court musician of the Gwalior Kingdom, gave a santoor recital in Raag Madhukauns. She was accompanied by her son Ninad Adhikari on santoor and Shantanu Deshmukh on tabla. The arena was packed with members from the art fraternity in the city.