USTAD AMIR KHAN
MUSIC FESTIVAL
The first of its kind, created to provide a platform for dedicated, growing artists based only in North America, and more importantly to bring together music lovers of the art form Ustad Amir Khan internalized in his being. The purity of Hindustani Classical Music is evident in his renditions and compositions.
Morning Session
10am - 12:30pm
Evening Session
Vocal
Instrumental Ensemble
Tabla
Accompanied by
Vivek Datar on Harmonium
Ravi Gutala on Tabla
Suparna Dangi
Suparna Dangi
Vocal
Born and raised in Mumbai, Smt. Suparna Dangi started her musical journey with Smt. Shirish Joshi. After completing her Visharad, she started learning from Pt. Ratnakar Pai, a renowned artist of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana. She holds a Master In Fine Arts degree from Mumbai University. She is a recipient of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi Scholarship and Sajan Milap scholarships. She has participated in Zee Tv's Sa Re Ga Ma and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa music competitions held in Mumbai and Dubai respectively. Presently, she learns from Pandita Aditi Upadhya, daughter and disciple of Pt. DInkar Kaikini of the the Agra Gharana. She lives in Fremont and runs her own music school Sur Bhakti.
Accompanied by
Arush Joshi on Tabla
Mihika Maharana, Ruhika Bahekar, Visham Pathak
Instrumental Ensemble
MIHIKA MAHARANA is a rising Junior in high school. She has been learning harmonium under the tutelage of Shri Vivek Datar for the last 4+ years. She is also a Hindustani vocalist and a disciple of Smt. Ashwini Khaparde for the last ten years. She started her musical training at an early age and has won multiple awards in Vocal and Harmonium performances.
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RUHIKA BAHEKAR is an 8th grader and has always had a passion for the arts. She started learning Hindustani classical singing at the age of six under Smt. Ashwiniji Khaparde. She began learning violin under the guidance of Shri Satishji Gadagkar, and is currently learning from Pandit Milindji Raikar.
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VISHAM PATHAK has been learning sitar since the age of 7 from Dr. Prasad Joglekar and from Pt. Partha Chaterjee for the last 3 years. Additionally, Visham has been learning Hindustani Vocals since the age of 7. Visham also received the AACM scholarship to learn from Ustad Alam Khan. Visham has performed and won many competitions and is an Indian Raga Fellow.
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Accompanied by
Skanda Krishnan on Harmonium
Gaurav Kale
Gaurav Kale
Gaurav is currently studying tabla under Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College of Music. He has also learned from under Pandit Ramdas Palsule and started his training in tabla with Shri Mandar Pimpale.
Tabla
Afternoon Session
Vocal
Accompanied by
Prashant Phatak on Harmonium
Shripad Torvi on Tabla
Renoo Nathan
Renoo Nathan
Vocal
Renoo spent her childhood in New Delhi. She started learning Hindustani Classical at an early age from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya under the tutelage of Pandit Narayan Jukkalkar from the Gwalior gharana. After she moved to the Bay Area, she started learning from her guru Smt. Shubhangi Sakhalkar in the early 2000s. She is a mother of two, and her other passions include painting and creating art.
Vocal
Anand Kulkarni
Accompanied by
Prashant Phatak on Harmonium
Shripad Torvi on Tabla
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Anand Kulkarni
Vocal
Anand was first introduced to music as a child by his maternal uncles. As a teenager he began learning Hindustani Classical Music on the Bansuri from Shri Patnaik in Powai, Bombay and Shri K S Naik in Bangalore. He has had the privilege of learning vocal music from Smt. Shubhangi Sakhalkar for more than 15 years and hopes to continue his journey in the years to come.
Sitar
Accompanied by
Ravi Gutala on Tabla
Josh Feinberg
Josh Feinberg
Sitar
Josh began his musical training at 4 years old with western classical and jazz on piano and bass in New York City, studying with some of the most accomplished musicians on the scene. A student of the Maihar Gharana, Josh has been dazzling audiences around the world for 20 years. One of the first non-Indian musicians to be accepted as a leading performer, he has learned with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan as well as Ust. Aashish Khan, Sri Alam Khan, Pt. Tejendra Majumdar, Dr. Peter Row, Dr. George Ruckert, Sri James Pomerantz, Sri Warren Senders and Smt. Vijaya Sundaram.
2pm - 4:30pm
6pm - 8:30pm
Tabla
Accompanying Artists
Bansuri
Vocal
Accompanied by
Gaurav Kale on Tabla
Arjun Bharadwaj
Arjun Bharadwaj
Bansuri
Arjun embarked on his journey in Indian Classical Music and flute playing at the age of 18. He has played flute across 100+ events in the Bay Area. He initially trained under Sri Venugopal Hedge of Maihar Gharana. He currently studies with Pandit Partha Chatterjee and Sri Mahesh Kale, continually exploring new realms of musical expression.
Accompanied by
Ravi Torvi on Harmonium
Shripad Torvi on Tabla
Tharini Nagarkar
Tharini Nagarkar
Vocal
Tharini Nagarkar, a first-year medical student in Washington DC, is a disciple of Pt. Vinayak Torvi, Vid. Amruta Deshpande, and Sri Dhananjay Hegde in the Gwalior and Kirana gharanas. She has given performances at various venues in India and the US such as the Ramaseva Mandali Trust and Sapthak in Bangalore, the Nadabrahma Sangeet Sabha and Gaanabharathi in Mysore, and the Philadelphia Ganesh Festival's 'Swaranjali.’
Arush Joshi
Arush Joshi
Tabla
Arush is a recent graduate from the University of Washington Seattle. He has been learning tabla for the past 14 years from Padmashri Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri and Shri Shripad Torvi. Outside of tabla, Arush likes to watch and play sports like basketball and football.
Accompanied by
Vivek Datar on Harmonium
Ravi Gutala on Tabla
Shubhangi Sakhalkar
Shubhangi Sakhalkar
Vocal
Shubhangi Sakhalkar is one of the founders of the Ustad Amir Khan Music Festival.
Shubhangi brings a brilliant pedigree to her music from the early years of tutelage from Mrs. Kunda Vaishampayan, followed by the devoted learning from the renowned artists, Dr. Prabha Atre and her present guru Smt. Padma Talwalkar and years of ardent "riyaaz".
She has performed in several musical circles and events in India and has accompanied her guru in concerts all over the country, including the highly regarded Savai Gandharva music festival.
A gold medallist with an M.A. degree in Hindustani classical music, Shubhangi believes in sharing the knowledge and raising the awareness of Indian Classical music by teaching her students for whom she is an inspiring mentor. She hopes for the Ustad Amir Khan Music Festival to provide opportunities to young artists in North America and to promote Hindustani Classical music appreciation throughout the world.
Vocal
Tabla
Ravi Torvi
Ravi Torvi
Tabla
Bio coming soon.
Suddha Kalyan Basu
Suddha Kalyan Basu
Tabla
Suddha Kalyan Basu is a software engineer at Google by profession. He got introduced to Indian Classical music by his father, Late Shri Tirthankar Basu from whom he learnt his first vocal lessons. Much later, when he moved to California he started his tabla training with Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College briefly, and then started learning from Shri Nikhil Pandya, from whom he has been learning for several years now.
Tabla
Prashant Phatak
Prashant Phatak
Harmonium
Prashant Phatak is a self taught harmonium player. He has accompanied many artists such as Shrimati Shubhangi Sakhalkar over the past 20 years. He is currently learning Hindustani vocal from Shrimati Sakhalkar.
Harmonium
Harmonium
Skanda Krishnan
Skanda Krishnan
Harmonium
Skanda’s musical journey began at the age of 5 when he started learning tabla from Guru Shri Satish Tare. Over the past 15 years, Skanda has grown into an avid performer of the percussion instrument with solos and group ensembles and accompaniment to his credit. Over the past year Skanda has been under the rigorous training and tutelage of Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College of Music. He is a self-taught harmonium player, honing his skills with the instrument for over 7 years.
Gaurav Kale
Gaurav Kale
Gaurav is currently studying tabla under Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College of Music. He has also learned from under Pandit Ramdas Palsule and started his training in tabla with Shri Mandar Pimpale.
Tabla
Tabla
Vivek Datar
Vivek Datar
Harmonium
Vivek learnt art of harmonium solo and accompaniment from (late) Pt. Vinayakrao Kale, who was a Gwalior Gharana vocalist. Kalebua was a prolific composer, with more than 800 compositions of his own. Vivek has taught several of them to his disciples in bay area. Currently Vivek learns from Vidushi Seema Shirodkar as and when time permits. Seema hails from Mumbai, and is a disciple of Pandit Tulsidas Borkar.
Vivek has accompanied several noted artists such as Vidushi Veena Sahastrabuddhe, Vishushi Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, Vidushi Padma Talwalkar, Pt Arun Dravid, Pt Madhav Gudi. He has keen interest in tuning theory and applications. He co-created a unique changeable-reed harmonium with Hinge Brothers from Mumbai.
Vivek resides and teaches in the Bay Area.
Harmonium
Ravi Gutala
Ravi Gutala
Tabla
Ravi was initiated at a very early age into Tabla by Shri P.Anjaiah, in Hyderabad, India and has been studying Tabla under Maestro Swapan Chaudhuri at Ali Akbar College since 1990. He has been teaching Tabla in South Bay for the past 20 years.
Ravi was recipient of All India National Talent Search Scholarship and was a regular performer at AIR, Hyderabad. He has accompanied many noted artistes such as, Pt.Jasraj, Dr Balamurali Krishna, Smt.Lakshmi Shankar, Dr.L.Subramaniam, Shri Anup Jalota, Master Shashank etc. and has played on 14 CD recordings.
Tabla