Music Technology & Sports Junction

NISHAT KHAN is an Indian sitar player and son of surbahar player Imrat Khan.

Khan was born in the mid-1960s in Kolkata. He performed with musicians of the genres jazz, Gregorian chant, flamenco and Western classical music. In August 2002, Khan performed for the Diet of Japan in Tokyo and played in 2004 at the Crossroads Guitar Festival. Khan is based in Beverly Hills, California, and works as a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

ANUPAMA BHAGWAT (born 1974) is an Indian sitar player.

Bhagwat was born in Bhilai, India. She was introduced to playing sitar at the age of nine by her uncle. Bhagwat trained under R. N. Verma of theMaihar gharana and traveled to Bhilai at the age of 13 to train under Bimalendu Mukherjee of the Imdadkhani gharana. She performed for All India Radio beginning in 1994 and was awarded a national scholarship by the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Bhagwat performed in India and the United States. She is based in the United States, and married. Bhagwat continues to train as a sitarist and listens to Indian classical singers to improve her technique.

BHAJAN SOPORI (born 1948 in Srinagar, Kashmir) is an Indian instrumentalist. He is a player of santoor, an ancient stringed musical instrument.

Sopori hails from Sopore in Kashmir Valley and traces his lineage to ancient Santoor experts. He belongs to the Sufiana gharana of Indian classical music. His family has played santoor for over six generations. His first public performance was at a conference organised by Prayag Sangeet Samiti & the University of Allahabad when he was 10 years old. Sopori's son Abhay Rustum Sopori is also a santoor player. Both father and son have given several performances together.

Pandit Bhajan Sopori has taught music at Washington University, US. His performances have been broadcast in India and seen by both cultural associations there and by audiences in countries such as Belgium, Egypt, England, Germany, Norway, Syria and the USA. Pandit Sopori, considered as the cultural link between Jammu and Kashmir and rest of India, also runs a music academy called SaMaPa (Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts), which is actively involved in promoting Indian classical music. SaMaPa is involved in promoting music with jail inmates, with the objective of using music for healing the prisoners and creating an emotional bond between the society & the prisoners. The academy has trained several musicians and revived old instruments. It was presented the state government dogri award in 2011.

Sopori was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1993 and the Padma Shri in 2004. In 2009 he was honoured with the Baba Allaudin Khan Award. He was also awarded the M N Mathur award in 2011 for his contribution to Indian classical music. His other awards include the Jammu and Kashmir State Award, the National Flag Honour of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Delhi Ratna Award, Delhi Telugu Academy Award, Beenkar Samman, Sangeet Vibhuti Award and Sangeet Ratna Award.

JACK ROSE (February 16, 1971 – December 5, 2009) was an American guitarist originally from Virginia and later based in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. Rose is best known for his solo acoustic guitar work. He was also a member of the noise/drone band Pelt.

In 1993, Jack Rose joined the noise/drone band Pelt with Michael Gangloff and Patrick Best. The trio, sometimes joined by friends including Mikel Dimmick and Jason Bill (also of Charalambides), released more than a dozen albums and a handful of minor releases primarily on the VHF Records and Eclipse Records labels as well as the band's own Klang imprint. The group toured steadily in the U.S. and referenced the work ethic of the Grateful Dead in the title of their album Rob's Choice. Notable tourmates included Harry Pussy,Charalambides and the Shadow Ring and opened for Sonic Youth. In Pelt, Rose played a variety of instruments, primarily electric guitar. During the late 90s, Pelt began to play acoustic folk-derived material, and Rose began to perform on acoustic guitar. Byron Coley wrote a feature on the group for the magazine The Wire, calling them "the Hillbilly Theater of Eternal Music." In late 1999, when Rose was fired from his job at a coffee shop and was able to collect unemployment insurance, he concentrated on acoustic guitar playing and developed rapidly. He first released two CD-Rs, Hung Far Low, Portland, Oregon and Doctor Ragtime, which featured a mix of country blues andragtime. These releases were composed of original and traditional songs, including covers of songs by fingerpicking guitarists John Faheyand Sam McGee . His first proper full-length, Red Horse, White Mule, (named after brands of moonshine mentioned on a best-selling sermon of the late 20s, "The Black Diamond Express Train to Hell" by Rev. A.W. Nix) was released on vinyl by Eclipse Records in 2002.

Jack Rose was a prolific recording artist in his relatively short solo career, with albums, EPs, and compilation tracks on no fewer than ten record labels. He gained a new level of public exposure upon his inclusion on Devendra Banhart's sold-out Golden Apples of the Suncompilation in 2004.

Rose's first three consecutive releases on Eclipse Records—Red Horse, White Mule (2002), Opium Musick (2003), and Raag Manifestos(2004)—were met with praise by critics and contemporaries alike. "Finally," said Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance, referring toOpium Musick in an interview with Pitchfork, "somebody has something to say on the acoustic guitar that hasn't been said before." 

Raag Manifestos was named one of 2004's "50 Records of the Year" by the UK avant garde music magazine The Wire in January 2005, following a feature on him in issue #241. Rose's rise in popularity in the UK during that time coincided with his Peel Session on May 20, 2004.

In 2005 he released Kensington Blues on Tequila Sunrise records. Featuring ragtime, ragas, country blues and lap steel, the record earned high marks from Pitchfork and Dusted Magazine. "Kensington Blues is a really hard record to live up to," Rose told Foxy Digitalis in a 2007 interview. He went on to express doubts about some of his other material released around that period of time. "With everyone putting out so much stuff, I mean you’ve gotta have new product all the time, it's kind of a drag," he continued. "I hate to sound like a total capitalist here... but when you’re on tour you need to have something to sustain you."

His recorded collaborators outside of Pelt were infrequent but include Jason Bill of Charalambides, Donald Miller of Borbetomagus, Glenn Jones of Cul de Sac, Ian Nagoski and Keenan Lawler. In 2008, he reunited with Pelt members and other musicians including Micah Blue Smaldone on his album Dr. Ragtime and His Pals.

He released two live LPs on Three Lobed Recordings, I Do Play Rock And Roll (2008) and The Black Dirt Sessions (2009), receiving positive reviews from Brainwashed and Pitchfork. TheWooden Guitar compilation on Locust Music was issued on vinyl for the first time in 2009 and almost immediately went out of print.

With the exception of his first two CD-R releases, all of his music has been available on vinyl, often in limited editions. His Dr. Ragtime 78, for example, was produced in an edition of only 6 copies, with one selling for $500 as part of a benefit auction on eBay. Some of his more popular releases such as Kensington Blues have been re-pressed on vinyl in open editions.

Jack Rose and The Black Twig Pickers, his ninth LP, was released in May 2009. An appearance on the 7" compilation Meet the Philly Elite and a tour-only 7" on the Great Pop Supplement followed.

Rose died on the morning of December 5, 2009 from an apparent heart attack. He was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Luck In The Valley, Rose's final LP, was released posthumously on February 23, 2010 by Thrill Jockey Records. The record was the third installment of what Jack self-deprecatingly referred to as his “Ditch Trilogy.” The album received an 8.2 on Pitchfork and featured Glenn Jones, Harmonica Dan, and pianist Hans Chew on most of the session.

In late April 2010, Three Lobed Recordings curated and released the digital compilation Honest Strings: A Tribute To The Life And Work Of Jack Rose, with all proceeds going to Rose's estate.

Rose's final recording, an electrified 4 song collaboration with D. Charles Speer & The Helix called Ragged and Right was released on June 15, 2010 as part of Thrill Jockey's singles club. The EP was recorded at Black Dirt Studios with Jason Meagher.

Rose's compositions were mostly for 6-string guitar, 12-string guitar, and Weissenborn-style lap steel guitar. He often employed open tunings.

He was compared to guitarists on the Takoma label from the 1960s, including American primitive guitarist John Fahey, Robbie Basho and former Vanguard recording artist and eventual touring partner Peter Walker.

Rose cited Charley Patton, Blind Blake, John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and, in later years, Link Wray as influences.

Nayan Ghosh was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra to the legendary Tabla Maestro Padmabhushan Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, the founder of Sangeet Mahabharati. His father was also an accomplished vocalist and sitar player.

He was trained by his father in both sitar and tabla, and practiced under the watchful eye of Ustad Ahmedjan Thirakwa, who lived with them for many years towards the end of his life in Mumbai. Nayan Ghosh began giving solo performances at the age of 4, and was touring the world with his father by the age of 18.

After he became comfortable with both the sitar and the tabla, he invited his father's first guru, Pt. Jnana Prokash Ghosh to help him decide which instrument to continue with. After two weeks of listening to Nayan Ghosh play both instruments, the conclusion was that he should continue with both until the choice became easier. However till today, in spite of repeating this exercise twice more, the choice hasn't become any easier. Pt. Nayan Ghosh has been an A grade artist on All India Radio in both the sitar and tabla categories for over 25 years, and has performed with nearly every major Indian Classical Musician. Over the years he has performed, lectured and taught extensively across the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent and in capital cities of Europe, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.

 Nayan Ghosh is one of the best performers of the traditional tabla repertoire of the Farrukhabad style.

He has accompanied many of the all-time greats, such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta.

Presently he is also working as guest music professor in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where he teaches tabla, sitar and vocal music.

SASKIA RAO-DE HAAS (born 1971) is a virtuoso cellist and composer from the Netherlands based in New Delhi, India. She is married to the sitarist Shubhendra Rao.

Saskia was born in Abcoude, the Netherlands in a family of music lovers. Saskia studied cello under the Hungarian cellist Tibor de Machula and went on to do a Masters in Ethnomusicology from the University of Amsterdam and the Conservatory of Rotterdam where she studied under Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Koustuv Ray.

She first came to India in 1994 where she studied Indian music under Dr. Sumati Mutatkar at the Delhi University. Subsequently, she has also been tutored by Pandit D.K. Datar, Pandit Deepak Chowdhury and Pandit Shubhendra Rao.

Saskia Rao de Haas has performed at a number of traditional festivals, such as the Dover Lane Conference in Kolkata and the Harvallabh Sangeet Samelan in Jalandhar.She has also performed at the ‘Vasanta Habbha’ in Bangalore, the ‘Maihar’ festival and the ‘Haridas Sangeet Sammelan’ in Lucknow. She has also performed at numerous international venues including the Kennedy Centreat Washington, D.C. and the Esplanande in Singapore. They are also scheduled to play at the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow in 2014.

Saskia is acclaimed for bridging the Western and Indian classical music traditions. She is an accomplished Western classical cellist, plays folk music from Eastern Europe and has composed music for dance, film and theatre. Rao-de Haas composed music for the dance group Raga Mala and created an Indian string quartet in her piece 'Mukhani'. She developed, together with Shubhendra, a collection of pieces for sitar and cello with percussion under the collective name 'East marries West'.

Saskia's contribution to Hindustani classical music through the Indian cello, an instrument fashioned out of the cello to enable it to be played in Indian classical concerts. The Indian Cello was fashioned by the violin maker Eduard van Tongeren with five playing strings and ten sympathetic strings. It is smaller in size than its western counterpart, thus enabling Saskia to sit on the floor while playing it. The addition of an extra playing string on a higher octave and the ten sympathetic strings further enriches the tonal quality of the Indian cello.

Saskia married sitarist Shubhendra Rao in 2001. They have a son, Ishaan and live in the C R Park locality of New Delhi.

KAMALA SHANKAR  was born in 1966 in the Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu). She is a Hindustani classical guitar player.  Shankar is the first woman to have been awarded a doctorate in guitar.

Kamala was trained in music by her mother from the age of six, and went on to study with khyal singer Channulal Mishra and sitar maestroBimalendu Mukherjee. She received a doctorate of music (guitar playing) from vichitra-beenkar Gopal Shankar Mishra at Banaras Hindu University, and also holds bachelor's degrees in both vocal music and zoology. Dr Kamala Shankar has been awarded the India's National Award in Music titled " Rashtriya Kumar Gandharva Samman" .

The guitar has only recently begun to be adopted to Indian classical music, and many players modify the instrument with their own developments to better suit the idiom. In this, Shankar is no exception. Her model, the Shankar guitar (built by Bishan Das Sharma of instrument makers Rikhi Ram and Sons, New Delhi), is made from a single block of wood, with thicker walls and no sound hole. It has four melody strings, four chikari (rhythm strings) and 12 taraf (sympathetic strings). The guitar is named after Shankar Bhagwan. Shankar calls it a "modified version of the Hawaiian guitar".

DEBASHISH  BHATTACHARYA ( born 12 January 1963) is an Indian classical musician who plays the lap slide guitar.

Bhattacharya was born into a musical family in Kolkata, it became apparent that Bhattacharya was skilled at a young age. His parents, both traditional Indian vocalists, gave him a basic understanding of music and he first began strumming a guitar at age three, when his father gave him a full-size Hawaiian lap steel guitar. He made his debut at the age of four on All India Radio, in Calcutta.

At the age of nine, he left his parents for ten years to study under the pioneer of Indian slide-guitar Brij Bhushan Kabra. At age twenty, he was awarded the President of India Award for winning the National Music competition of All India Radio.

His originality as a musician has earned him global admiration, and he has performed on networks all over the world. He has attracted attention to the slide guitar and Indian classical music within India and globally. Today he has more than 2000 students in India and other countries, and thousands of musicians, music directors, teachers, and followers who have been led to the new language of old traditional Indian music of Debashish. He invented his own slide-guitars, unique to his compositions, which he calls the "Trinity of Guitars". These hollow neck instruments are the 24-string chaturangui, the 14 string gandharvi and the anandi, a 4-string lap steel ukulele. He opened a new Universal School of Music in Kolkata, India, where he teaches students from all over the world the principle universal form of Indian music and special course of Guitar. The school is a non-profit organisation, works for restoring music, musician and traditional art. His most popular albums are: Mahima with Bob Brozman, and Calcutta Slide-Guitar, Vol. 3. Both of these albums are on Riverboat records and ranked in the top 10 of the Billboard World Music Charts.

He was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional World Music Album for his album Calcutta Chronicles.

PADMABHUSHAN PANDIT BUDDHADEV DAS GUPTA is an Indian classical musician who plays the sarod. Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta resides in Kolkata, India. He is one of the artists featured in Nimbus Records's The Raga Guide.

Buddhadev Das Gupta was born in 1 February 1933 in his maternal home at Bhagalpur, India to parents Prafulla Mohan Dasgupta and Bhabani Dasgupta. His father was District Magistrate by profession and an avid lover of music although he never learnt music. Since childhood little Buddhadev grew up with a musical atmosphere at his home. At a very early age he started taking Sarod lessons from the eminent Sarod maestro Sangitachrya sri Radhika Mohan Maitra. His first program in the All India Radio was as a guest artist. He has done more than 17 national programs in All India Radio, which is a very rare incident among known Indian Classiscal Musicians.

Besides his world-wide fame as a Sarod maestro, Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta has had a equally brilliant track record in Academics. He stood 2nd in the Matriculation Examination, held in 1948. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the prestigious Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, which was then affiliated to the University of Calcutta and stood 2nd. He received the honorary D.Litt degree from the Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur (his alma mater) at its annual convocation on 16 February 2010.

In 2011, Sarod maestro Buddhadeb Dasgupta, was offered the Padma Shree by the government of India, but he turned it down saying "it was far too late in the day". In Jan 2012, he has been conferred with Padma Bhushan by Govt. of India.

DEBASIS CHAKROBORTY ( born 9 June 1961) is an Indian classical slide guitar player who belongs to the Senia-Maihar Gharana. Chakroborty was born in Calcutta, India, and was groomed in the atmosphere of music from his childhood. He began learning guitar from his father Sh. Madhusudan Chakroborty. He then came under the tutelage of Pt. Barun Kumar Pal, a renowned guitarist from Kolkata and Pt. Jotin Bhattacharya, an eminent Sarod player and senior disciple of Ustad Baba Allauddin Khan Sahib of Maihar Gharana. Later on, Debasis became a disciple of the guitar maestro Pundit Brij Bhushan Kabra.

Debasis's style of playing combines both Gayaki and Tantrakari Angs. He is still following the oldest tradition of playing Sarode, Sitar and Veena with his modified Hawaiian guitar, which has its own beautiful technical virtuosity and three octave advantages. His purity of style, uniqueness of imagination and total absorption with melody coupled with his brilliant technique in which “Tantrakari” and “Layakari” are prominent and make his recital enchanting. He is an “A” grade artiste of Broadcasting Corporation of India (All India Radio & Television) in both Hindustani Classical and light music and performed in the prestigious National programme. He is an I.C.C.R. empanelled artiste under the Ministry of external affairs, Govt. of India. He visited several Universities and institutions around the world(including Monash University, Melbourne, Australia) as visiting faculty/ Artist in Residence and performed in many prestigious concerts and conferences which were widely appreciated. At present, he lectures in the Department of Music, Institute of Visual Performing Arts & Research, Mangalayatan University, Aligarh.

IVAN TUCAKOV (born in 1978 in Belgrade) is a world music composer, guitarist, producer and promoter currently living in Vancouver, Canada.

Tucakov, of Serbo-Croatian descent, spent the first eight years of his childhood in the plains of central Turkey, then moved to live in Serbia, both the crossroads of eastern and western cultures and music. Throughout the years, he has done extensive travelling around the worlds gathering inspiration from various cultures. He explored the techniques of Balkan Music, Afro-Cuban jazz, Flamenco, Indian Classical Music, Music of Cuba, Persian Music, Fado, Gypsy Music and many more.

Ivan Tucakov formed collective Tambura Rasa with his good friend, tabla player, Tarun Nayar in 2004. Their music merges Tarun's Indian Classical Music knowledge with Ivan's Balkan and Iberian influences. Some of the continuing members of the band include violinist Michael Fraser, bass player John Bews and drummer Trevor Grant & percussionist Pepe Danza.

Tambura Rasa has released two CDs: 'Sunrise on a New World' (2004) and 'Viaje' (2006).

LALGUDI GOPALA IYER JAYARAMAN (September 17, 1930 – April 22, 2013) was a well-known and award-winning Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. His disciples included his two children Lalgudi G.J.R.Krishnan, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, renowned Harikatha exponent Vishaka Hari,Sangeetha Shiromani Saketharaman and the Academy Award nominated Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.

Born in the lineage of a disciple of the saint musician Thyagaraja, Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman inherited the essence of Carnatic music from his versatile father, late V R Gopala Iyer, who trained him meticulously.

At the age of 12, he started his musical career as an accompanying violinist.

Having an active imagination, quick grasp and an ability to adapt easily to the individual styles of the leading maestros in Carnatic music, while accompanying them in their concerts, he reached the forefront in rapid strides. With the concert experience he thus gained, coupled with sheer hard work and perseverance and the strong urge to give original expression to his musical ideas, he emerged as an accomplished solo violinist.

He expanded the style of violin playing by inventing a whole new technique that is designed to best suit the needs of Indian Classical Music and establishing a unique style that came to be known as 'Lalgudi Bani'. His flawless and fascinating style, graceful and original, yet not divorced from traditional roots, gained him numerous fans. This multi-dimensional personality has, to his credit, composed several 'kritis', 'tillanas' and 'varnams' and dance compositions, which are a blend of raga, bhava, rhythm and lyrical beauty. A notable feature about Lalgudi is that his music is very expressive. Lalgudi's instrumental talent comes to the fore in the form of lyrical excellence. He brought the most-sought-after vocal style into violin, and his renditions exhibit knowledge of lyrical content of the compositions.

He has been in great demand for accompanying vocalists, and has accompanied such great vocal virtuosos as Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, Voleti Venkateswarulu, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, K.V.Narayanaswamy, Maharajapuram Santhanam, D. K. Jayaraman,M.Balamuralikrishna, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, T. N. Seshagopalan and flute maestros like N. Ramani, etc. His accompanying wizardry and quick responses to the various challenges posed by the main artistes remain unsurpassed. His accomplishments are numerous but chief of them is the fact that he was the first to bring international attention to the Carnatic style of violin playing. He also introduced a new concept of musical ensemble with violin, venu (flute) and veena in 1966, and gave several outstanding concerts.

He has given concerts extensively in India as well as abroad. The Government of India sent him to Russia as a member of the Indian Cultural Delegation. At the Edinburgh festival in 1965, Yehudi Menuhin, the renowned violinist, impressed by Lalgudi's technique, presented him with his Italian violin. He has also performed in Singapore, Malaysia, Manila and East European countries. His recordings submitted to the International Music Council, Baghdad, Asian Pacific Music Rostrum and Iraq Broadcasting Agency by AIR New Delhi have been adjudged as the best and accorded the first position out of 77 entries received from the various countries during 1979. He was invited to give concerts at Cologne, Belgium and France. The Government of India chose him to representIndia at the Festival of India in USA, London and he gave solo and 'Jugalbandi' concerts in London and also in Germany and Italy that received rave reviews. Sri Lalgudi went on a tour in the year 1984 to Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, which was highly successful. He composed the lyrics and music for the operatic ballet Jaya Jaya Devi, which premiered in 1994 at Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.) and was staged in many other cities in the United States. In October 1999, Lalgudi performed in the UK under the auspices of Sruthi Laya Sangham (Institute of fine arts). The concert was a roaring success. After the concert, a dance drama Pancheswaram, composed by Lalgudi, was staged.

Lalgudi Jayaraman was married to Smt Rajalakshmi and had two children: his son G.J.R.Krishnan and his daughter Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. Both follow the footsteps of their father and are famous in their own right. He had three sisters Padmavathy, a vainika, Rajalakshmi and Srimathi, both violinists. Srimathi learned violin from him as well. The renowned veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh is Smt Rajalakshmi's daughter.

Jayaraman died on April 22, 2013 after suffering a cardiac arrest in Chennai. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.