Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar - Hindustani Vocal

accompanied by Samir Chatterjee - Tabla and Kedar Nephade- Harmonium

Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar

Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar, born on January 27th, 1963 in Karnataka, is recognized as one of the leading vocalists of Indian Classical Music. She initially trained under the veteran Late Pt. Vasantrao Kulkarni of the Agra Gwalior gharana. Thereafter, she became fortunate to have her art polished under the tutelage of Gana Saraswati Smt. Kishori Amonkar of the Jaipur Atrauli gharana. The influence of her gurus is quite evident in her performances, as she effortlessly enweaves nuances of both gharanas in her singing. Endowed with a rich, resonant voice, Arati’s recitals are marked by an excellent command over rhythm and melody.

Arati has performed at several prestigious conferences in India, such as the Sawai Gandharva Mahotsav (Pune), Malhar Utsav (Delhi), Tansen Sangeet Samaroh (Gwalior), Dover Lane Music Festival (Kolkota), Shankarlal Festival (Delhi)  and the Sabhas organized by Madras Music Academy (Chennai). Parallel to her performances in most major cities in India, she has also gone into some of the interior places of the country to perform for large audiences in her mission of propagating the tradition of India.

Arati, as a Cultural Ambassador of India, has visited USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and many other countries, where she made tireless efforts in spreading awareness on Indian classical music. Her popularity amid the youth is well established through several workshops conducted by youth organizations in India and abroad. She has been carrying her objectives of popularizing Indian music and encouraging people to connect with Indian Cultural Heritage with integrity. The University of Pittsburgh, USA has organized many of her workshops and concerts. She has also been on tours organized by Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Arati is the recipient of the scholarship from the Government of India from 1975 to 1980 and Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar scholarship from 1980 to 1982. She won gold medals in Khayal, Thumri and Ghazal in the All India Radio Music competition held in 1983 and 1984. Arati received the prestigious Pt. Kumar Gandharva Sanman (M.P.) in 2006-07.  She is also the proud recipient of the Pt. Jasraj Award.

Arati lent her voice to leading casts of Hindi, Marathi and regional cinemas. She was the main playback voice for the Shyam Benegal's film Sardari Begum. She received the best play back singer award for Konkani film Anternaad in 2006 and for the Marathi film Samhita in 2012. She also received the Maharashtra State Award as the best playback singer, V. Shantaram Award and the Maharashtra Times Award for a Marathi Film. She has also served on a Jury for Tansen Award, Kalidas Sanman, Kumar Gandhrva award of M.P. government, Radio Mirchi Award, Maharashtra Times Award and many more.

Arati has recorded for HMV, Venus, T-series, Fountain, Times Music and Sagarika Music. She has to her credit a number of audio cassettes and CD recordings. One of her CDs titled Raga Ranga is an educational presentation to introduce classical music to the masses. For the past fifteen years Arati is serving as a senior faculty at the University of Pune, India. She also runs a Gurukul in Pune, where students from all over the world come to seek her guidance.

Samir Chatterjee

Samir Chatterjee is a virtuoso Tabla player from India. He travels widely across the world throughout the year performing in numerous festivals as a soloist or with other outstanding musicians from both Indian and non-Indian musical traditions. Samir performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway in 2007. He also performed a few times at the United Nations General Assembly. His compositions are widely acclaimed as well as his writings. Samir is a firm believer in the transforming effect of music on the society and all aspects of his work reflects this conviction.    

Chatterjee began his studies early with Pt. Bankim Ghosh, Pt. Balaram Mukherjee, Pt. Rathin Dhar and Mohammad Salim. His later formation as a musician occurred under the guidance of Pt. Amalesh Chatterjee (since 1966) and Pt. Shyamal Bose (since 1984). All of Samir's teachers have been from the Farrukhabad Gharana (school) of Tabla-playing, which he now represents.
          
Samir is rated ‘A’ as an artiste of Indian national radio and television of India. He can be heard on numerous recordings featuring as soloist, accompanying many of India's greatest musicians and in collaboration with western musicians of outstanding caliber. In concert Samir has accompanied many of India's greatest musicians including Ravi Shankar, Ud. Vilayat Khan, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Pt. V.G. Jog, Pt . Shivkumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Ud. Amjad Ali Khan, Ud. Salamat Ali Khan, Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, Ud. Aashis Khan, Dr. L. Subramanium, Ud. Nasiruddin Saami, Ud. Shujat Khan, Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Ud. Nishat Khan, Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Pta. Veena Sahashrabuddhe, Ud. Rashid Khan, Pt. Tejendra N. Mazumdar, Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya, to name only a few.
          
Samir Chatterjee lives in the New York-New Jersey area, and has been a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Non-Indian music, in his own creations and others as well. He performs with Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Branford Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Joshua Bell, Dave Douglas, Steve Gorn, Glen Velez, Boby Sanabria, Ben Verdery, Dance Theater of Harlem, Boston Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Ethos Percussion group, Da Capo Chamber Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva and other jazz, classical and avant guard musicians and ensembles. He is member of jazz trio SYNC with Ned Rothenberg. He also collaborates with Sufi-Rock singer Salman Ahmad of Junoon from Pakistan. He is the composer and director of Indo-Flame – a blend of Indian and Flamenco dance and music, Chhand-Anand - a world percussion ensemble, RabiThakur – a ballet on the life of Tagore, Meghadootam – a feature program of music and dance on an ancient Indian poem, and Dawn to Dusk and Beyond – on the effect of music on humans and nature. He performs with Sanjay Mishra on his CD "Blue Incantation" featuring Jerry Garcia as guest artist.
          
Samir Chatterjee has been teaching for four decades and many of his students are established performers. He is the Founding President Chhandayan, an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Indian music and culture. He has authored a comprehensive 654-page book entitled ‘A Study of Tabla’, a guidebook to Indian music titled ‘Music of India’ and ‘Those Forty Days’, a journal of an austere practice regimen he undertook during the summer of 2016. He is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, University of Pittsburgh and New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He won gold medal for his proficiency in a musical examination and has two master degrees, in English and History.

Since June, 2008 Samir has been working relentlessly towards the musical revival of Afghanistan. He has made several trips to the country working with different levels of the society and administration and within a very short period of time he has been able to make a remarkable difference in the cultural life of the country. He is the recipient of several awards such as the Sunshine Award, Jadu Bhatta Award and Acharya Varistha Award.
 

Kedar Naphade

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 Gwaliorand 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.

This program is partially sponsored by the: