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The Raymond MTV India Music Summit is back in its 3rd Edition at The Fairmont, Jaipur from October 4th to October 6th, 2019.
The India Music Summit which started in 2017 is a congregation of music lovers and musicians who come together not just to listen to but to engage with music. The Summit is a deep dive, going beyond the surface offering an immersive and incredible musical journey to all music aficionados.
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Born in Sangli, Maharashtra, Asha Bhosle has been the voice for generations of Bollywood heroines, from Madhu Bala to Rekha, Kajol and Madhuri Dixit, with an unparalleled playback singing repertoire. From film songs to ghazals her evergreen numbers like Dum Maro Dum, Mehbooba Mehbooba, Piya Tu Ab To Aaja and Chura Liya live eternally on our lips. She worked with some of the best directors of her time, from her husband RD Burman to OP Nayyar. Her duets with Mohammed Rafi were a string of unforgettable hits.
Her voice held a perfect crystalline tone, extraordinary range and it carried, as The Guardian once put it, "an ineffable otherness, like a sense of India itself". She received the Padma Vibhushan award in 2008.
She was the first Indian singer to be nominated for a Grammy award and has collaborated with Robbie Williams, Michael Stipe, the Kronos Quartet, and lent her name to Cornershop's Brimful of Asha, one of the landmark hits of the 1990s.
If the santoor has anyone to thank for its journey from being a sufi folk accompanying instrument in Kashmir to a Hindustani solo one garnering the nation's centre stage spotlights, that would be Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. At a tender age of five, Sharma began learning the instrument from his father, Uma Dutt Sharma, an accomplished Hindustani vocalist and tabla player from the Benaras gharana.
But the santoor’s rigid structure meant that it could not produce the meend — the leap from one note to a higher one while lightly touching all the notes in between. Without this it would be forever relegated to the sphere of the folk, not classical. Sharma set about increasing the melodic range of the instrument, reworking his playing technique to produce a tone that carries the flexibility of the human voice.
Classical apart, Sharma even made the santoor's presence felt in Bollywood. Among Sharma’s most memorable contributions are the soundtracks of the films Silsila, Darr and Lamhe, which he composed in collaboration with flute virtuoso Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, one of the many maestros he has worked with.
He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1986, the Padma Shri (1991) and the Padma Vibhushan (2001).
During one of his earliest performances in the US, Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram was stopped by the airport authorities and asked what a ghatam was. He tried to explain it to them but failed. Then he just took out his instrument and started playing for them. They were awestruck at the sound a mere earthen pot could make. Today, he is affectionately called Vikku Vinayakram, and at his hands the ghatam can reproduce an astounding range of complex human emotions.
In his long-standing career he has played with the stalwarts of music from MS Subbulakshmi to Zakir Hussain and tenor sax sage George Brooks. With performances around the world he's most credited with taking the ghatam out of the vestiges of pure Carnatic percussion and moulding it into a world instrument. His accolades include a Grammy award in 1991, the Padma Shri in 2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.
Vidhushi Aruna Sairam's first guru was her mother, who was coached by the famous Alathur brothers. By the time she reached Vidhushi TV Brinda, her first guru outside the home, a ten- year old Sairam, born and raised in Mumbai, could sing compositions in 150 Carnatic ragas and each varanam in six progressively geometrical speeds.
There is almost no genre Aruna Sairam hasn't tried and aced. Whether it is Carnatic classical, Hindustani, folk, abhangs, bhajans, jazz, rhythmic chants or MTV Coke Studio fusions; whether it is singing in Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, or Punjabi, she has made each melody her own, mesmerising audiences with her dexterous vocal timbre and zeal to conquer new ground.
With a string of prestigious national and international awards and honours to her credit, including the Music Academy's Sangita Kalanidhi award (2018) Padma Shri (2009) and the US Congress Proclamation of Excellence (2008), Sairam is a musical ambassador spreading the reach of Carnatic music to the world.
Born in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to Sufi Abdul Suwan Sabri and Rehmat Illahi, Haji Aslam Sabri was a child playing in the dargahs near his home when the sounds of the evening qawwali drew him to the euphoric art form. He realised early in life that his voice was meant to carry the tradition of his ancestors far and wide. Nurtured by the performing qawwals, he began singing Faarsi qawwali, a rare form, at the age of eight. Largely self-taught Sabri believes that nobody can pursue qawwali for a stable career or economic returns. One can only be in it for love of the divine.
His voice became the talk of town. Eventually, his fame spread across the country and gave him opportunities to perform in several parts of the world. Through the years, he has always preached equality and religious tolerance through his music.
One of Dharwad's treasures, Venkatesh Kumar began training as a 12- year old, under the revered Veerashaiva Saint, Veereshwara Punyashrama in Gadag. For 12 years he trained in the Gwalior and Kirana styles of the Hindustani sangeet tradition but was encouraged by his guru to learn from other gharanas and Carnatic traditions as well. It took a long time for fame to catch up with his brilliance. It was only in 1993 that he got a telegram from Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, asking him to sing at the Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav in Pune. There was no stopping him after that.
Even today, what distinguishes Kumar from other vocalists is his trademark style of blending traditions by beginning a bandish in the Gwalior style and then moving forth to do the vistaar in the Kirana style, with Carnatic embellishments along the way, maintaining a sparkling clarity of each swar's enunciations. Kumar received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2012 and the Padma Shri in 2016.
The brothers first performed at a haazri (a musical ritual at temples) in 1967 at the famous Sankat Mochan temple in Benaras. Rajan was 10 and Sajan five. They soon became regular performers at temples. “That is how we developed a spiritual connect with our music, since the performances were an offering to God," they say. Trained by their Grand uncle Bade Ram Das Ji Mishra and their father Hanuman Prasad Mishra, the brothers soon developed their own style, in the innate ability to complete each other's musical phrases and imagination.
Today the brothers are among the foremost celebrated vocalist duos in the sphere of Hindustani khayal. They have performed all over the world from South East Asia, the U.K., North America and Europe. They were awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1998 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007.
He has more than 100 CD releases on a variety of international labels. Son and disciple of the great sitar legend Ustad Vilayat Khan, Shujaat Khan belongs to the Imdadkhani Gharana of the sitar and his style of playing the sitar, known as the gayaki ang, is imitative of the nuances of the human voice.
Born and raised in Kolkata, in 1995, Shujaat Khan came up with a folk and sufi album Lajo Lajo, which had him singing along with playing the sitar. This unique approach ascribed his individual expression and creativity.
He has collaborated with different genres of music. The Rain, an album featuring Shujaat Khan and the Indo-Persian Ghazal ensemble with Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Traditional World Music Album. “Gharana is a beautiful thing as long as you enjoy the beauty implicit in the style and not use it as a pillow or a couch, constantly using it for self-aggrandisement,” he says.
When his voice flows through badhats into well-knit sargams, his spellbound audience describes it as molten gold. Ustad Rashid Khan is an extraordinary Hindustani vocalist belonging to the Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana. Growing up in the '70s in Badaun, a sleepy town of Uttar Pradesh, it was his illustrious granduncle and guru, the late Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan, who changed the course of his life after discovering his raw talent. Training was tough. There were days under his tutelage devoted to just mastering 'Sa'. A little tremor would attract punishment.
Years of rigorous training paid off – he earned the Padma Shri in 2006 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award the following year, among a clutch of other national awards. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi once said of him, “There is now at least one person in sight who is an assurance for the future of Indian vocal music.”
Ustad Rashid Khan believes in reinventing himself constantly, and his fans follow him through each of his avatars.
They are the talented grandsons of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, undoubtedly one of the century's greatest vocalists. Guided by their grandfather, who belonged to the Kasur Patiala Gharana, the brothers started formal khayal training under their uncle and guru, Ustad Munawar Ali Khan, who groomed them in the intricate chamukhia style particular to the gayaki of the gharana. Their guru's vigorous talim of khayal that lasted many years coupled with their own untiring riyaz moulded them into established vocalists with superior control over Swara and Laya, who could invoke nostalgia by delivering complex layered khayal taan patterns uncannily similar to Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saab.
Together the brothers founded the Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Music Foundation of India for the promotion of art and culture. With performances around the world, the brothers are also top grade artistes of AIR and Doordarshan.
Dhrupad, a Hindustani musical form that is known to be at least 3,000 years old, is believed to have emerged from the earliest sounds in the universe. That makes Uday Bhawalkar’s role in resurrecting Dhrupad's majestic beauty, nuance and depth invaluable.
After spending over 12 years studying and living in the traditional guru-shishya parampara with Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar (Vocal) and Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (Rudra-Veena), the towering pillars of the Dhrupad tradition, he decided that one way to spearhead a resurgence of the music form would be to take it outside its home turf and make it engage with a rapidly changing world. He has performed widely in Europe, USA, Canada, Mexico, and Singapore. Bhawalkar has also contributed to the soundtracks of international art films including Mani Kaul’s Cloud Door, Aparna Sen’s Mr & Mrs Iyer and Amol Palekar’s Anahat.
An ITC Sangeet Research Academy guru since 2012, he also teaches Dhrupad across the world and enjoys a devoted fan following.
Prasoon Joshi's intricacy of thought and depth of emotion strikes a chord that uniquely connects him with his audience. Having published his first book of prose and poetry at the age of 17, his way with words stood him through varied avatars - from that of an internationally acclaimed advertising professional to a prestigious National Award-winning film songwriter as well as a columnist and author.
His lyrics for films like Rang De Basanti, Hum Tum, TaareZameen Par, Delhi 6, Neerja, Manikarnika differ from the usual cacophony of cliches and forced rhymes in their essential, simple beauty. The soul, warmth and sparkling humour that Prasoon brings to his work, whether through iconic campaigns or through his feature film work, has moved hearts and moulded popular culture.
For his varied talents and the far-reaching impact of his work on the literary and social landscape, he was also honoured by the President of India with the Padma Award - one of the most prestigious civilian honours
The universality of Prasoon's virtuosity lies in the fact that he recognizes, in his own words, that "human emotions are the same all over the world - it is their expression alone that is different".
Ace percussionist. Acclaimed composer. Son and disciple of legendary tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha. Djembe exponent. World musician. There is no single way to describe Taufiq Qureshi.
Taufiq's fervent sense of rhythm stems from his roots in traditional intricacies of Indian rhythm interwoven with his command over new age world percussions. He took up the Western drum kit, bongos and batajon, and eventually the African djembe pioneering a distinct technique of adapting the djembe using patterns of the Punjab gharana of tabla playing. Over the years, he not only made the instrument his own but inspired a whole new breed of djembe percussionists in India. He was a performing artiste on the 2009 Grammy award winning album Global Drum Project and has won global accolades for his unique rhythmic compositions.
It's going to be two decades since Taufiq released his debut album Rhydhun - An Odessey of Rhythm that pushed the boundaries of drumming. He’s still pushing it in unimaginable ways.
Shashank Subramanyam was six years old when he gave his first public flute performance, in 1984. Born in Rudrapatna to Hemalatha and Prof. Subramanyam, his forefathers belong to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. He was trained in Carnatic Music foremost by his father and later by vocalists R.K. Srikantan, Palghat K.V. Narayanaswami. He also trained in Hindustani music under Pandit Jasraj.
He has performed internationally and worked on collaborative performances that range from pure classical to symphonies, film music and crossover projects with musicians around the world such as The New Jungle Orchestra and John McLaughlin, for which he won a Grammy nomination. He has brought his Carnatic ragas to Persian and African compositions, played with Japanese and Iranian musicians, and free-styled with jazz maestros. He is also part of a band called Shashank meets Lelo Nika, a quartet with him, a Swedish bass player, Serbian accordionist and a Roman cimbalom player. “Notes are your alphabets, you take them and go off conversing,” he says.
She is the pied piper of Bollywood, whose music and live performances have captivated millions under her spell. With hits like Beedi Jalai Le and Sheila Ki Jawani, Sunidhi Chauhan is not just the queen of item numbers but can transport you to emotions that range from the sensual to the euphoric from patriotism that tugs at the heartstrings to melancholia that hangs like a cloud. She also made her presence known in the international circuits by collaborating with Latino pop icon Enrique Iglesias on Heartbeat (India Mix), which featured in his album Euphoria.
This staunch fan of Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey was a child artiste who shot to fame through a television talent hunt show Meri Awaz Suno. Today, she is one of the highest-paid singers in Bollywood. The world is tuned into Sunidhi's smoky voice, waiting with anticipation for the next hit number.
For Javed Ali, music is all about experimenting. Be it with his vocal quality or with different genres that he takes on ranging from Bollywood to sufi and regional cinema. Delhi born and son of qawwali singer Hamid Hussain, Javed started his vocal training from a young age. While he debuted into Bollywood in 2000, the songs that made him a household name include Ek Din Teri Raahon Mein from Naqaab (2007) and Jashn-e-Bahaaran from the movie Jodhaa Akbar (2008), Arziyan from Delhi 6 (2009) and Kun Faya Kun from Rockstar (2011) among a slew of hits. He has worked with a lot of music composers such as AR Rahman, Pritam and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.
Bollywood apart, Javed Ali has sung in various regional languages — Bangla, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. He has been a popular choice for judging singing reality shows such as Indian Idol and Superstar Singer.
No matter what you've heard of the SCC, watching them perform live is an ethereal experience unlike any other. The SCC was founded in 2001 by Neil Nongkynrih to be a multi-genre choir. While they had already made waves in North East and abroad with their unique style of rendering songs in various languages, their shot to fame countrywide was their 2010 victory in the reality TV show, India's Got Talent.
Their outstanding music features pieces from Khasi folk as well as Handel, Bach, Gershwin, Mozart and Nongkynrih’s own compositions. The SCC’s trademark has always been their ability to surprise listeners with medleys that blend the familiar and the unfamiliar.
From performing at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for Obama’s presidential state visit to India to being asked to compose the Vande Mataram anthem for the landing of the Chandrayan moon mission, to performances with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Fitz William Quartet, the SCC's versatile music is reaching every part of the world and beyond. Along the way, the SCC has won a clutch of prestigious awards and accolades such as the Forbes persons of the year and People magazine’s heroes of the month.
Ajay Prasanna was a toddler when he was first given the flute by his father and guru, renowned flautist Pt Bhola Nath Prasanna, who was also guru to Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia. At age six he performed at the All India Music Competition in Allahabad and stood first. Belonging to a long lineage of musicians from the Benaras Gharana, Ajay is easily one of the finest flautists today.
The three- time Grammy nominee straddles both modern and traditional worlds seamlessly, sharing the world stage as easily with Pt Ravi Shankar, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Khan and Ustad Zakir Hussain as with renowned western musician Sting. His strength is the deep roots he holds in both the gayaki and tantrakaari styles of playing the instrument. He has performed all over the world from Kenya to Russia and enjoys a devout fan following.
If Pandit Shivkumar Sharma spread the echo of the santoor beyond the depths of the Kashmir valley, his son Rahul Sharma made the 100 strings a world instrument. Rahul began learning the santoor from his father at the age of 13. As he grew up, with more exposure to different genres of music, he began wondering why his santoor couldn’t be a feature of the kind of songs Pink Floyd composed.
Today Rahul collaborates with some of the finest musicians in the world – from Richard Clayderman, Grammy-winning band Deep Forest, and Kenny G with whom his album topped the US Jazz Billboard charts. Sharma’s album The Rebel is a first of its kind Santoor-Rock work. This quintessential “Bandra Boy” who is known to be reclusive has recorded over 60 albums till date, half of which are purely classical. He says that he is still discovering the endless possibilities of melody that the santoor has to offer.
One of India's best-known sitar players belonging to the Senia Maihar tradition, Purbayan Chatterjee wanted to do all the things he had never done. So he played the sitar standing up, holding it like a guitar, played electric music, shunned his kurta pyjama… and then came back a full circle, back to pure classical concerts. His endeavour a few years ago, Classicool, was a movement that proclaimed that “classical is cool", where Purbayan played pure ragas and talas using a contemporary soundscape with instruments such as drums and bass.
He draws his wide-ranging musical influences from his father Partha Prathim Chaterjee, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Ali Akhbar Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Jasraj among other musicians.
Today, if anybody best embodies the style of Pandit Nikhil Bannerji, it is Purbayan. He is the recipient of the President of India award for being the best instrumentalist of the country.
The story goes that Kaushiki Chakraborty was a child so musically gifted that residents of Kolkata’s Sangeet Research Academy, where she grew up, recall how her baby cries would be attuned to the scale of the strumming Tanpura. Daughter of acclaimed Hindustani vocalists Chandana Chakraborty and Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Kaushiki is a torchbearer of the Patiala Gharana and one of the leading vocalists of India today. One of her distinctive styles is an elaborate fulsome taan that she opens her performances with. She likes to call her thumris emotionally driven that comes from the heart and her khayals more technique-oriented. She has also experimented in collaborative music by singing for Gulzar, Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, Bollywood films and MTV Coke Studio.
She has the classical poetry of Ghalib, Seemab and Momin on her tongue, modern poetry of Faiz and Sahir Ludhianvi too, chaste Urdu or lyrical Hindi put her equally at ease, as her dulcet voice glides from ghazal to dadra to thumri…
Born and raised in Jammu, Dr Radhika Chopra is a versatile musician. Having learnt from Smt. Shanti Harinand, the renowned disciple of Begum Akhtar, Chopra mastered classical music and started performing at the All India Radio Jammu. She joined the faculty of music and fine arts in Delhi University from where she completed her MPhil and PhD in Hindustani Classical Music. With performances across the globe, she is most famous for her renditions of the golden voices of yesteryears — Geeta Dutt, Noor Jahan, Jagjit Kaur, Mubarak Begum and of course Begum Akhtar.
Her voice has the combined effect of the refreshing breeze from Himachal and the soft lapping waves of the Ganga ghat. Sunanda Sharma and her mellifluous rendition of the Benaras Gharana style of gayaki carries forward the legacy of her guru, Vidushi Girija Devi.
Belonging to a musical family in Dah, her native village near Pathankot, Sunanda started training when she was barely five, under the guidance of her father Pandit Sudarshan Sharma. She earned a gold medal for her masters in Indian classical vocal from Punjab University. It was during one of her earliest performances at the Hariballabh Sangeet Sammelan at Jullandhar that Girija Devi spotted her talent and took her under her wings. That was the beginning of a nine year training period in the Guru Shishya Parampara where Sunanda lived, served and learnt music from her guru in Benaras and Kolkata.
Though her forte lies in khayal, tappa, thumri, dadra and chaiti, Sunanda has expanded her repertoire to include Punjabi folk, sufi and other devotional styles.
Among the first wave of Indian pop singers of the 90s, Shweta Shetty is perhaps best known for her song Deewane To Deewane Hain. Her album Johnny Joker, released in 1993, brought her into the spotlight – since then she has lend her voice to several Bollywood tracks, most famous of which is the song Manga Hai Kya for the film Rangeela. She was nominated for the Filmfare Award for playback singing for this song. Her husky voice is best suited to folksy numbers and you can enjoy this side of her art at our folk music session.
Whether it is ghazals, Hindustani classical, bhajans, western music or Malayalam film music, Gayatri Asokan is a vibrant presence in the world of Indian music. Born and raised in Kerala, Gayatri had free-ranging musical influences from an early age. Her tutelage under Carnatic exponents Nedumangad Sasidharan Nair, Mangat Natesan and Vamanan Namboodiri; and Ghazal Gayaki from Pt. Vinayak Torvi and Shrimati Shubha Joshi moulded her unique vocal sensibilities.
This post-graduate in English Literature trained under Hindustani classical artiste Alka Marulkar in Pune in a typical gurukul system that demanded intense practice and dedication. Training is a life long journey for Gayatri, who has, for the past five years, been learning from Pt. Vinayak Torvi, a student of Pt Bhimsen Joshi, in Bangalore.
She got her first break in playback singing for the Malayalam film Araynnangalude Veedu, where she sang a duet with maestro K.J. Yesudas. Since then she has performed on stage with S Janaki, Hariharan, KS Chitra, SP Balasubramaniam and Shankar Mahadevan, both in India and abroad. Her solo ghazal album Ghazal Gaze was launched by Padmashree Pankaj Udhas recently.
While growing up in the US, Svetha Rao was called ‘The Indian Princess’ by her friends. There was something about the way she carried herself, owning her name. So it’s no surprise that she christened herself Raja Kumari for her hip hop avatar. The Indian-American songwriter and hip hop artiste is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer but even as early as age 15 she knew she wanted to be a hip-hop star and wanted to “make people believe in themselves through her music”.
For her Hip-hop is the most powerful genre worldwide. She has co-written songs, performed background vocals and featured in many popular hits that include Fall Out Boy's Centuries, Brave Enough by Linsay Stirling and contributions to albums by Gwen Stefani and Fifth Harmony. From a cameo in this years’ critically-acclaimed hit music drama Gully Boy to co-writing songs with Mumbai rapper Divine to being nominated for a Grammy in 2015 for her album The New Classic, Raja Kumari is pretty much unstoppable.
Her latest EP Bloodline that features the hit song Shook has already fetched close to 5 million views on YouTube.
Reality show success can build a person. Mohammed Aman's story is one such. After shooting to fame since becoming a finalist at the Zee TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2012, the nation remembered the 20-year old who was the only one to have impressed the judges and audience with his classical renditions. For the grand finale, it was Pooriya Kalyan he chose, accompanied by Taufiq on the djembe.
Originally hailing from Jaipur, Mohammed's training began at age five. His grandfather Mir Mohammed Khan and his father Ustad Zafar Mohammed were his prime inspirations. Even today, he is usually accompanied by his father on the harmonium wherever he performs. “To make a career in music, the knowledge of ragas is most important,” he believes.
Cousins Soumil Shringarpure and Siddharth Mahadevan have been composing music as a duo for over 10 years, during which they have composed music for films, jingles, brand anthems and worked on many government projects together.
Mahadevan is also a playback singer and has sung in many Bollywood as well as regional films. He has been performing regularly in India and abroad.
Shringarpure, besides being an actor in Marathi films, is also a pianist and an accomplished keyboardist who has performed with artists such as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Taufiq Qureshi, Sivamani and many others.
In the last few years, they’ve been conducting music workshops such as the one you will attend at this summit, wherein they take the audience through a journey of how a song is created in a studio.
He is first a bohemian raconteur before he is a commentator, an Urdu poetry and literature critic, a translator, a rights activist and an itinerant speaker and moderator. His listeners the world over would vouch for that.
Saif Mahmood’s Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and Her Greatest Poets offer a window into the life, times and poetry of Delhi’s greatest Urdu poets from the 18th and 19th centuries, with witty and critical insight, in a conversational style that has become Mahmood’s hallmark.
He is also a Supreme Court advocate and founder of the South Asian Alliance for Literature, Art & Culture (SAALARC). Mahmood has won particular acclaim for his passionate recitations of Urdu poetry, from the works of Faiz, Majaz, Sahir and Jaun Elia.
A high-school dropout, Prabh Deep's debut album, Class-Sikh, that released on iTunes in 2017, has been reviewed by music buffs as one of the most exciting, aggressive and self-assured albums to emerge from India’s independent music scene in recent history.
Rapping in slang-infested Punjabi with a smattering of Hindi and English, his tracks pick socially weighty themes that address rampant drug addiction, student suicides and the Sikh riots of 1984 among other realities. His tight verse, great rhythm and dynamic tone that swings from languid old school to rage laced cutting edge has won him die-hard fans from Tilak Nagar to the entire Indian diaspora.
The story of Udyan Sagar has become a case study of sorts for anyone wanting to make a mark in India's indie music circuit. Better known as Nucleya, from Chennai to Jalandhar, his electronic music has a diehard fan base, several of whom have gotten his lyrics and psychedelic artwork tattooed on their bodies! Bass Rani, one of his most popular tracks, has over 23 million views on YouTube and several spin-off versions. With music that is accessible and unpretentious, he's carved a space on the indie scene that has people turning green with envy.
Nucleya has consciously spread his music beyond the cool hipster crowds and for the launch of his album Bass Rani he played in over 20 cities across India. From an MTV Music Award, Mirchi Music Award and a Filmfare award for Best Album, he has won wide critical acclaim for his efforts.
Our very own Siddhant Kumar, better known as SID-K in the music circuit, is a supremely talented singer, lyricist, and music composer – fast becoming a name to be reckoned with. His mellifluous voice grabs the audience attention instantly as they sit rapt, listening to his distinctive singing style that is a meeting point between Western and Indian classical.
Artiste Manager by day and singer by passion, SID-K’s ever-increasing repertoire includes Hindi, English and Punjabi numbers. He has shared the stage with big names like Sona Manapatra, Daler Mehendi, Raftaar, Deep Money, among several others, and is counted among the most promising young artistes of today.
When Lydian's fingers run over the piano keys, sparks fly. The 13-year old Chennai boy has been steadily gaining international acclaim not just for his renditions of western classical pieces but also for the highly entertaining manner in which he plays — blindfolded at times, playing two pianos simultaneously and sometimes, enthralling his audience by playing compositions at the speed of light.
In March this year, Lydian won the CBS talent show, The World's Best after flooring the judges with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee and earned the million-dollar cash prize. The little maestro has fans around the world: Billionaire Michael Novogratz sent him a Steinway grand piano last year and Ellen DeGeneres and AR Rahman are among his ardent admirers. Lydian is home-schooled and practices the piano for six hours a day under the guidance of his father, Varshan Satish, a Chennai-based music director. His dream is to play the Moonlight Sonata… on the moon!
He delights people with witty conversations and his good nature, and his knowledge about music is beyond compare. Known and loved as RJ Sarthak of Hit FM, he has been an integral part of every Delhiite’s morning routine.
Born and raised in Delhi, Sarthak pursued a Bachelor’s degree in French, followed by a Masters in Interpretations, and also did a course in Fashion Journalism from NIFT. He’s worked as an interpreter with embassies, been a journalist with Rock Street Journal and been at news television channels such as Headlines Today and Times Now before realising that radio was his thing.
Sarthak is known for pushing the boundaries of the platform to encourage local bands and homegrown talent and understands that the radio is an intensely local, personal medium.
Sadhna Shrivastav started her career with Doordarshan when electronic media set its foot on the Indian horizon. One of the most popular television personalities in the 80s and 90s, she has left a distinct imprint in the minds of millions of television viewers of India. Sadhna has contributed to the media and the field of culture in her capacity as consultant and coordinator of international and national festivals, television anchor, stage compere, and director of documentaries and serials.
She was awarded the International Lifetime Achievement Award by International Congress of Women in 2009.
Until last year, Abdul Aziz didn't have an inch of space in his house. Musical instruments would pour out of his living room, bedroom, window sills and bathrooms. Collecting musical instruments is a family tradition for Aziz, who owns 1,000 musical instruments that cover a range of tanpuras, sarangis, sarods, daflis, shenais, tablas, veenas, dholaks and torais among several others. Everywhere he travels he buys what catches his fancy. Some of these instruments are 250 years old, some 100 and some over 50 years old – with gems ranging from the Mughal era. Several of them are rare and forgotten instruments that would delight and thrill any music aficionado.
He recently moved all his instruments to his workshop near Jaipur's Jal Mahal to give them more space. Some of these instruments have appeared in popular film sets such as Aamir Khan’s PK, and other popular films that have showcased Rajasthan's musical heritage.
He says he would like to set up a museum someday to “allow the instruments the dignity they deserve”.
At India Music Summit you have the rare chance of not only having a glimpse of these instruments displayed outside the Grand Ballroom but also to buy the instruments or donate to his dream.
Music Mantraa is a volunteer-driven initiative by 17-year-olds Sabina D’Souza and Rhea Chadha that has a mission to create opportunities for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds to learn music in their schools. Together the duo has had numerous opportunities to learn and enjoy music in their growing years and felt privileged to have music as a part of their school curriculum.
“Music is something that has thoroughly shaped me as a person, so I wanted to use my experience working with children in ReachOut, my leadership experience from the Class Council, and my profound passion for music. Subsequently, in March of 2018, Sabina and I created Music Mantraa,” says Rhea.
“I began working with an NGO called Teach India, which strives to educate underprivileged children, by teaching them basic English and Math skills. I realized that I thoroughly enjoy working with children, but I felt that something was still missing. I wanted to connect my passion for music to my passion for service,” says Sabina.
They believe that a holistic education which includes the arts is essential to learning and that music holds vast cognitive benefits, thus, they now work to ensure that everyone can have this same opportunity.
As of now Music Mantraa runs free music classes in 6 schools in Gurgaon and plans to target all of the underprivileged schools in Delhi NCR.
Bhutte Khan likes to say that even a newborn child of the Manganiar cries in Raag and taal. There is no need to kindle a passion for music in them; the Manganiars are simply born with it. Bhutte Khan Manganiar is an exponent of the Manganiars, a group of hereditary professional musicians from the Barmer region in western Rajasthan, historically traditional court musicians who performed at weddings, births and deaths.
He has an organization called Dharohar that helps preserve Rajasthani folk culture which has been passed down from generation to generation, through oral narratives and taught assiduously to youngsters.
Inspired by Rajasthan’s royal past and the Pink City’s rich heritage, Fairmont Jaipur’s elegant architecture, evoking a royal haveli, becomes the perfect setting for Raymond MTV India Music Summit. Its many courtyards and outdoor spaces, its large auditorium, the beautifully designed lobby all add to the spirit and feel of the summit – your musical journey, in fact, starts right at the entrance, with the nagaras that the hotel’s resident musicians play to welcome your arrival at the gorgeous hotel.
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