Ustad Amir Khan
Music Festival
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2018
The first annual Ustad Amir Khan Music Festival took place at Heartfulness Meditation Center in Fremont, California on May 19, 2018.
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Find the program, festival gallery, and videos below.
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Morning Session
Harmonium
Tabla
Tabla
Accompanying Artists
Vocal
Sitar
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.
Accompanied by
Ravi Gutala on Tabla
Prasad Jogalekar
Prasad Jogalekar
Sitar
Dr. Prasad Jogalekar, a computer engineer by the day and Sitar player by the night and weekends, draws his inspiration from music stalwarts in instrumental as well as vocal traditions. Prasad is very fortunate to be a disciple of Late Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan and Pandit Partha Chatterjee. He has also learnt nuances of Vilayatkhani style of sitar from Ustad Shahid Parvez. Earlier he learnt music from his parents and Smt. Phadke from Pune. In spite of playing Sitar at odd hours his family, students and neighbors still love him. He has played in many concerts, including some collaborations with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra and Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, and has done guest lectures in Sitar at Stanford, Mills College and UC Davis.
Evening Session
Vocal
Sitar
Vocal
Accompanied by
Vivek Datar on Harmonium
Ravi Gutala on Tabla
Nachiketa Yakkundi
Nachiketa Yakkundi
Vocal
Hailing from Dharwad, Nachiketa Yakkundi was initiated into Hindustani vocal music by his parents. His formal study began in Madras under Shri B. N. Simha and later under Shri B. Hanumantachar. His rigorous and extended pedagogy came under the virtuoso late Padmabhushan Pandit Basavraj Rajguru. Nachiketa has performed in several cities across India and North America. A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, he runs the Rajguru Sangeet Vidyaniketan school of music.
Rishabh Iyer
Accompanied by
Rahul Joshi on Tabla
Rishabh Iyer
Sitar
Rishabh has won a national competition in Hindustani Classical music, held in Atlanta, Georgia and was also named IndianRaga fellow in 2014. Rishabh released a professional CD when he was just 12 years old. He has given several solo sitar performances in and around the Detroit area including at the liberty fest in Canton and Arts, Beats and Eats in Royal Oak. Currently Rishabh is pursuing undergrad studies at Stanford.
Accompanied by
Prashant Phatak on Harmonium
Shripad Torvi on Tabla
Jayanti Deshmukh
Jayanti Deshmukh
Vocal
Jayanti Deshmukh has started her music at an early age of 5 under the guidance of her mother Smt. Anita Athavale (Disciple of Vidushi Padma Talwalkar)
Jayanti mainly acquired training in the tradition of Jaipur Gharana. Currently she is under the guidance of Smt. Shubhangi Sakhalkar (Disciple of Dr Prabha Atre and Vidushi Padma Talwalkar)
Jayanti is also trained in semi classical and light music. She was amongst top 15 contestants all over USA at the semifinal held in Boston by BMM Saregama in 2013.
Jayanti has performed in various house concerts, cultural festivals like Discover India organized by India Association of Phoenix & in religious organizations.
Jayanti has completed “Sangeet Visharad” (graduate degree) in Indian Classical music with first rank from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, Mumbai for which she was awarded with “Tarabai Dixit Memorable Award” by prestigious organization Dadar-Matunga Cultural Centre, Mumbai – India.
Afternoon Session
Vocal
Accompanied by
Prashant Phatak on Harmonium
Shripad Torvi on Tabla
Ranjita Swamy
Ranjita Swamy
Vocal
Ranjita started my Hindustani classical vocal training at the age of 5 from Pt. K.S.Naik in Bangalore. Her Guruji laid a very firm foundation for advanced training in the later years. She continued her training from Pt. Veerabhadraiah Hiremath of Gadag, based in Mysore, and her graduation, from Pt.Indudhar Nirody ji in Banglore.
After moving to Bay Area, she took music lessons from Smt. Jayanti Sahasrabuddhe ji for a brief period.
Currently she is training under Smt. Shubhangi Sakhalkar ji who is one of the most sought after teachers and performers in the Bay Area. She feels very blessed and fortunate to be able to receive her constant guidance and direction at each step of my musical journey.
She works as a computer engineer for a living.
Harmonium
Rohan Joshi
Accompanied by
Rahul Joshi on Tabla
Rohan Joshi
Harmonium
Rohan has been learning Harmonium for last 9 yrs from Guru Vivek Datar, disciple of Sri Vinayakrao Kale of the Gwalior Gharana. Rohan also learns sitar from his guru Dr. Prasad Jogalekar, disciple of Sitar Maestro Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan. He has accompanied various artists in the Bay Area on the harmonium. Rohan is currently a freshman at UC Berkeley.
Vocal
Ashwini Khaparde
Accompanied by
Vivek Datar on Harmonium
Shripad Torvi on Tabla
Ashwini Khaparde
Vocal
Smt Ashwini Khaparde began her initiation of music at the age of 5 under the guidance of her father, Shri Shashikant Thombre. Subsequently, she learned from the eminent Dr. Usha Paarkhi of the Kirana Gharana. It was under her guidance that she passed Sangeet Alankar. She has continued to learn from Dr. Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. Ashwini combines the two gharanas easily and melodiously, bringing out the best of both gharanas.. Ashwini's large repertoire includes Marathi Natyasangeet, Abhanga and other semi classical forms. She has performed in India and the USA at various platforms. For the past 20 years Ashwini has been teaching classical music in the bay area through her organization Swarasadhana. She is very passionate about teaching.
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.
Rahul Joshi
Prashant Phatak
Harmonium
Rahul Joshi just completed his second year at UC Berkeley. He is majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology. He has learned Hindustani classical vocal from Smt. Shubhangi Sakhalkar. He has also learned table from Shri Ravi Gutala and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri.
Ravi Gutala
Prashant Phatak
Harmonium
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.
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.
Shripad Torvi
Shripad Torvi
Tabla
Shripad Torvi was introduced to Tabla in early childhood by his uncle, vocalist Pt. Vinayak Torvi. His formal education began after coming to the US, where he learned from Shri. Abhinay Padhye for about 5 years. Shripad has accompanied many artists locally and visiting artists from India. He has been continuing his tabla lessons from Tabla Maestro Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri for the last 5 years.
Tabla
Harmonium
Gallery
The Festival
Sponsors
Intonation Foundation thanks our sponsors without whom the
Ustad Amir Khan Music Festival would not have been possible.