Vocal - Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar
Tabla - Amod Dandawate
Harmonium - Kedar Nephade
Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar
Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar is a ‘Top Grade’ artist of Akashwani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan (TV). She was initiated into music and groomed by her father, Pt. Wamanrao Sadolikar, a disciple of Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and Ustad Alladiya Khan (Founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana) and his son Ustad Bhurji Khan. Shrutiji trained for 12 years under Ustad Gullubhai Jasdanwala, renowned for his repository of rare compositions and complex ragas of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana. Shrutiji continued to learn from Ustad Bhurji Khan’s son, Ustad Azizuddin Khan, till his demise in August 2011.
Shrutiji is a graduate of Mumbai University. She received the Sangeet Visharad from Akhila Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal with distinction and did her Master’s degree in Music from SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, with Distinction, winning the Bhaskarbua Bakhale Prize. She is presently the Vice Chancellor of Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University, Lucknow. Shruti is a much sought after concert artist and sis well known as a scholar musician.
Shrutiji has received a large number of prizes and awards which include the Raj Hans Puraskar, 2017; ‘Icons of Maharashtra’, Mumbai; the Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan Award, for her contribution to the Education Sector; the Jewel of Ruia Award from her alma mater, the Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai; the Swarayogini Prabha Atre Award, 2013; the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Music, 2011; The Sangeet Shiromani Award by Kashi Sangeet Samaj, Banaras, 2008; The Shanmukha Sangeet Shiromani Award by Shanmukhanand Sangeet Sabha, Mumbai, 2002. Shrutiji was awarded the Gopinath Savkar Prize, Talpade Memorial Prize and Pendharkar Prize for best production, best direction and best music direction for the play ‘Sangeet Tulsidas’ in 2001. She received the prestigious Dagar Gharana Sanman, from the Maharana Mewar Foundation, Udaipur, 1998.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Shrutiji’s achievements include The Bhulabhai Memorial Institute Scholarship, 1975; Kesarbai Kerkar Scholarship (National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai), 1976-78; The Homi Bhabha Fellowship (National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai), 1994-96.
ASSIGNMENTS
1. She has been a visiting professor at the Rotterdam Conservatorium in Netherlands.
2. Shrutiji was a Guru at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata;
3. She was a visiting professor at the Department of Music, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai;
4. She was a professor at the Department of Music, University of Mumbai.
5. Shrutiji is a guide for many research students for their PhD in Music.
6. She has delivered lecture-demonstrations on various aspects of Indian Classical Music in many schools and universities in India;
7. She has also toured for delivering lectures on music in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Switzerland, Scotland, Germany, Mauritius, UAE, Muscat, Kuwait, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Australia, etc.
8. Shrutiji has and still continues to produce research based thematic programs on various aspects of Indian culture and music.
9. She has been contributing to various research journals and magazines by way of written articles on various subjects regarding Indian Classical Music and Performing Arts.
10. Her educational CD, ‘The Raga Guide’, was produced and marketed by Nimbus Records, UK.
11. She has been recorded by prestigious record companies in and out of India.
12. As a tribute to her father, Shrutiji revived the musical play SANGEET TULSIDAS after 60 years (Pt. Wamanraoji had played the protagonist in the play in 1930).
13. As producer-music director- coordinator, Shrutiji presented the Marathi musical play SANGEET SAMSHAY KALLOL at the WORLD MUSIC THEATRE FESTIVAL in Netherlands, April 1999.
Amod Dandawate
Amod Dandawate has been primarily trained in the Farrukhabad style of Tabla playing. He was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India, and later migrated to the USA. He was initiated into Tabla by his father Dr. Vasantrao Dandawate, a disciple of the legendary Maestro Ustad Amir Hussain Khan. He started playing Tabla at a very young age but seriously pursued the art form only after completing his Bachelors degree in Engineering. At that point, he received initial guidance and encouragement from Shafaat Khan while performing as an accompanist and then spent some time taking lessons from Ustad Zakir Hussain. Having settled in New Jersey he has been receiving advanced training, since 2001, as a disciple of Pt. Samir Chatterjee, a well known Maestro of the Farrukhabad gharana (http://www.tabla.org).
Besides performing solo Tabla, Amod has accompanied several eminent artists and keeps a busy performance schedule. Amod also hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.
Kedar Nephade
Born on January 10, 1972, Kedar Naphade received preliminary training in Hindustani Classical Music from his grandfather, Shri Dadasaheb Naphade and from Shri Arvind Gajendragadkar.
Since he was 10 years of age, Kedar has had the great good fortune of training under the loving and expert guidance of Pt. Tulsidas Borkar, one of the topmost harmonium players in India today. Under his nurturing guidance, Kedar has imbibed the unique style of solo harmonium performance developed by Pt. Borkarji’s guru, Madhukar Pednekar or P. Madhukar. P. Madhukar was a genius with tremendous mastery over the instrument that is to date unsurpassed. His glorious tradition, which utilizes the strengths of the harmonium to the extreme, is presented to the connoisseur today by his stalwart disciples like Pt. Tulsidas Borkar and Pt. Anant Kemkar and the next generation of disciples consisting of Sudhir Nayak, Seema Mestri-Shirodkar, Kedar Naphade and others.
Kedar has also had the privilege of training under Smt. Padmavati Shaligram-Gokhale, a veteran singer of the Atrauli-Jaipur gharana. She played a pivotal role in his musical development and sowed in him the seed that developed into a passionate love for the vocal art form. As such, Kedar’s music derives inspiration from the stylistic genius and dexterous wizardry of P. Madhukar as well as the character of the traditional Hindustani vocal art form, especially of the Gwalior and Jaipur gharanas. In addition to classical music, Kedar also plays the semi-classical forms of Marathi Natyasangeet (Stage Music), Bhajans, Thumri, Dhun etc.
Kedar has performed harmonium solo and has accompanied vocalists at numerous concerts in India, Europe and in the U.S. including prestigious festivals and venues such as the Alladiya Khan Smruti Samaroha, Dadar Matunga Cultural Center, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space etc. He has accompanied artists of high caliber such as his guru Smt. Padmavati Shaligram-Gokhale, Pt. Phiroz Dastur, Pt. Jasraj, Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Smt. Laxmi Shankar and others. Kedar continues to train from Pt. Tulsidas Borkar and maintains an active concert schedule in the U.S.