Swara Samrat Festival season 10 pays tribute to Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, born in 1922, the legendary Sarod player, popularly known as the musician's musician, is an indelible name in the history of Hindustani classical. Marking Ali Akbar Khan's centennial year, the Swara Samrat Festival (SSF) is celebrating its tenth season in four cities across the country. The 10-day mega festival of Indian Classical music and dance is being held in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru!

The famous Kolkotta festival was held in Delhi for the first time with two evenings dedicated to Hindustani music and dance on July 23-24, 2022 at Shree ram centre for performing arts in Delhi. An audience made up of people from all age groups gathered to enjoy the festival that featured young and upcommong artists from India.

Present too were eminent Hindustani classical artists from Delhi and disciples of Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan such as Pandit Biswajit Roy Chowdhury and pandit Tajendra Yadav, who is the founder of SSF. Moreover, the granddaughter of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan also graced the occasion.

The evening was opened by Gandhar Deshpande (Vocal) who sang raag Lalita-gouri and rare raag Deepak. Accompanying him in the symphony were Ishaan Ghosh (Tabla) and Vinay Mishra (Harmonium), Debjit Patitundi (Tabla), and Ravi and Raghav on sitar.

Followed by this was a jugalbandi of Sarod and tabla by Kaushik Mukherjee (Sarod) and Debjit Patitundi (Tabla). The playfulness of raag jhinjhoti rang through the auditorium. The performance saw scintillating high notes as the audience lauded in appreciation.

The final act was a graceful Kathak performance by Piyush and Preeti Chauhan (Kathak Duet) with Yogesh Gangani (Tabla), Nishit Gangani (Tabla), Ashish Gangani (Pakhawaj), Sami Ullah Khan (Vocal) and Karan Gangani (Padhant).

Thereafter, the performances on the second day were by Aayush & Lakshay Mohan (Sarod Sitar Jugalbandi) and Ishaan Ghosh (Tabla), Yashwant Vaishnav (Tabla Solo) and Nilay Salvi (Harmonium), Arshad Ali Khan (Vocal), Debjit Patitundi (Tabla) and Murad Ali Khan (Sarangi)