Santoor Recital By Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR SANTOOR RECITAL BY PANDIT...

The Times Of India is organising an 8-day Times Hyderabad Festival from 7th to 15th June, at different venues across the city. The festival will feature Indian classical music concerts by Dr. M Balamuralikrishna, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, food festivals, qawwali-fashion fusion by Munnawar Masoom and Tarun Tahiliani, a rock concert by Parikrama, and music carnivals by Aryans and Shibani Kashyap.

As part of this, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma will be performing on 12th June at The Marriott, Hyderabad. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, born January 13, 1938, in Jammu, is an Indian classical musician, working in the Hindustani classical music tradition. He is a master of the santoor, a folk instrument from the valley of Kashmir. He is credited with single-handedly making the santoor a popular classical instrument, to the extent that the santoor and Pandit Sharma are synonymous.

Pt. Sharma modified the Kashmiri folk instrument to make it more suitable for his classical technique, increasing the range of the instrument to three full octaves and making it capable of a smoother meend (the glissando or gliding between notes required in Hindustani classical music to emulate the human voice). Besides, he also created a new technique of playing with which he could sustain notes and maintain sound continuity.

Pt. Sharma has performed many concerts with renowned musicians, including the tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain. He has also partnered with well-known flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia to form a group called Shiv-Hari, for composing Hindi film music. His son Rahul is also a santoor player. Rahul started accompanying his father in concerts in 1996, at the age of 24. In 1999 they released Sampradaya on Real World Records.

Pt. Sharma is a recipient of many national and international awards, including honorary citizenship of the city of Baltimore, USA (1985), the Sangeet Natak Academy Award (1986), the Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar (1990), an honorary doctorate from the University of Jammu (1991), the Padmasri (1991), the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Award (1998), and the Padma Vibhushan (2001).

Entry to the concert is by free invitations, available at The Times Of India office on Road No. 2, Banjara Hills. Please contact 6527-7755 for invitations and further details.