Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt (Mohan Veena)
Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute)
Uma Sharma (Kathak)
Ustad Shujaat Khan (Sitar)
Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar (Vocal)
Smt. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande (Vocal)
Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (Sarod)
Pt. Venkatesh Kumar (Vocal)
Smt. Parveen Sultana (Vocal)
Pt. Salil Bhatt (Satvik Veena)
Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt (Mohan Veena)
Artist Bio
Creator of the Mohan Veena and the winner of the Grammy award, Vishwamohan Bhatt is an Indian Classical instrumentalist.

He was born into a musical family in Rajasthan and began his musical training as a Sitar player under his father, who ran a music school. Being the foremost disciple of Pt. Ravi Shankar, Vishwa Mohan belongs to the elite body of musicians which trace its origin to the Mughal emperor Akbar's court musician Tansen and his guru the Hindu Mystic Swami Haridas.

Vishwamohan Bhatt has attracted International attention by Indianizing the Hawaiian Guitar with perfect assimilation of the Sitar, Sarod and Veena techniques, by giving it a revolutionary design and shape by adding 14 additional strings. With blinding speed and faultless legato, Bhatt is undoubtedly one of the most expressive, versatile and greatest slide players of the world.

His latest creation is a new instrument, the Vishwa Veena, which has 35 strings.

"Music is the language of god created for the benefit of mankind.
To me, music is the medium to talk to god.""
- Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt
Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (Flute)
Artist Bio
Hariprasad Chaurasia is an accomplished Indian Classical flautist. Son of a wrestler, Chaurasia began learning vocal music from his neighbor, Pandit Rajaram, as a teenager. Later, he switched to playing the flute under the tutelage of Pandit Bholanath Prasanna of Varanasi for eight years. He joined the All India Radio, Cuttack, Odisha in 1957 and worked as a composer and performer.

Much later, while working for All India Radio, he received guidance from the reclusive Annapurna Devi, daughter of Baba Allaudin Khan. She only agreed to teach him if he switched from right-handed to left-handed playing. Till date, he plays the flute left-handed.

If Chaurasia is more earthly than many of his peers, it is probably down to his background. Indian classical music is a family business: father hands on tradition to son. Chaurasia is a first generation musician with a will of iron to perspire, persist and inspire.

In spite of having achieved so much, the maestro is still giving back to the world through his own music and by nurturing outstanding talent in his school Brindavan, which is based on the gurukul system.

"My religion is my music.
Lord Krishna is my God.
Whenever I want to pray, whenever I want to meditate and concentrate, I take my flute.
I can feel God."
- Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia
Uma Sharma (Kathak)
Artist Bio
Uma Sharma is a kathak exponent born into a family of litterateurs in Delhi, comprising Acharya Pandit Vasudeva Sharma, Sanskrit vidwan for a father and Ratna Devi for mother.

Uma Sharma received her dance training from Guru Hiralalji and Girvar Dayal of the Jaipur gharana, and subsequently became a student of Pandit Sunder Prasad of the Jaipur gharana who emphasised rhythmic footwork and its permutations, Shambhu Maharaj and Birju Maharaj noted gurus of the Kathak tradition of the Lucknow gharana, known for the art of abhinaya.

From the age of 14, she was invited every year by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to perform at his birthday parties. She was also chosen to perform at Rashtrapati Bhavan for royal visitors including Queen Elizabeth, the Shah & Shah Bano of Iran.

Uma Sharma is not only known for her abhinaya, but is also renowned for her research and innovation, having managed to not only give a new look to the stock repertoire of Kathak, but also bring out the glorious tradition of the Braj Raas of Vrindavan and its relation to Kathak.
"mein jab bhi naachi, doob ke naachi.
Aur logon ko pasand aaya
Whenever I dance, I drowned in it.
My body articulated it and people always liked it."
- Uma Sharma
Ustad Shujaat Khan (Sitar)
Artist Bio
Shujaat Khan is a sitar maestro and seventh generation torchbearer of the embellished legacy of the Imdad gharana that has produced many a virtuoso.

He is the son and disciple of the great sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan, and his grandfather, Ustad Inayat Khan, his great-grandfather, Ustad Imdad Khan, and his great-great-grandfather, Ustad Sahebdad Khan, were all leading artists of their respective generations. He can trace his lineage all the way back to Mian Tansen, the great court musician in Emperor Akbar's court.

Born the eldest son to not just a master musician, but a temperamental and incorruptible father, Shujaat Khan's musical career began at the age of three when he began practicing on a specially made small sitar. By the age of six, he was recognized as a child prodigy and began giving public performances.

Gifted with an exceptional voice, he's known to be a fearless collaborator with different genres of musicians
"Music is ceaseless. Give your heart and soul to music and leave the rest to destiny."
- Ustad Shujaat Khan
Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar (Vocal)
Artist Bio
Pandit Ulhas N Kashalkar is a Hindustani classical vocalist. He has previously received training in the Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra gharanas, and is considered a representative of all three schools. He received his first lessons in music from his father N D Kashalkar, a lawyer by profession and an amateur vocalist and musicologist. He went on to study music at Nagpur University, topping his post-graduate class. Around that time, he trained under Rajabhau Kogje and P N Khardenavis. Ulhas Kashalkar initially worked as a programme executive at the Mumbai station of All India Radio. In 1993 he became a teacher at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, where he remains today.

Smt. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande (Vocal)
Artist Bio
Dr. Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande is a Hindustani classical music vocalist from Mumbai. She pursues the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, although she has also been influenced by the Mewati and Patiala gharanas. It was not until she completed her doctorate that she even considered a professional career in music. Because of her influences from the Jaipur-Atrauli, Mewati and Patiala gharanas, she has created her own musical style. She holds a strong command over the three primary saptaks. She has an intimate understanding of Bandish and bandish-composition and has created many of her own bandishes, which she has published in her book, Raag Rachananjali (2004). A sequel titled "Ragarachananjali 2", containing 98 more bandishes (compositions) was published in 2010. She is also known for her setting of bhajans, especially those of Kabir.
Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (Sarod)
Artist Bio
Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar is an Indian sarod player and pupil of Bahadur Khan. Majumdar is one of the most popular and celebrated modern sarod players. He started his music training under his grandfather Bibhuti Ranjan Majumdar with mandolin. He also received vocal and tabla training under Amaresh Chowdhury and Anil Palit. Later he trained under Bahadur Khan for 18 years until the latter died. He then continued training under Ajay Sinha Roy and Ali Akbar Khan. He has played duets with Shujaat Khan. The rendering of raag Charukeshi is especially notable.

He stood first in the All India Radio music competition in 1981 and was awarded the President's gold medal and the Pandit D. V. Paluskar award. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2018.
Pt. Venkatesh Kumar (Vocal)
Artist Bio
Pandit M. Venkatesh Kumar is an Indian Hindustani vocalist. He is best known for his rendition of devotional songs composed by Swami Haridas and Kanakadasa. Kumar belongs to the Kirana and Gwalior Gharana. In 1968, when he was 15 years old, Venkatesh was taken by his mother's brother, father in law Nadoja Belagallu Veeranna to the Veereshwara Punyashrama in Gadag, run by the Veerashaiva saint and Hindustani musician Puttaraj Gawai. For the next 12 years, he lived at the ashram and learned Hindustani singing in the Gwalior and Kirana styles under Gawai. Kumar blends these styles in his presentations, though he admits to influences beyond these gharanas, chief among them being Bade Ghulam Ali Khan of the Patiala gharana. His guru was also trained in Carnatic music, and as a result, there are traces of Carnatic elements in Pandit Kumar's music, especially in his sargam patterns.

Kumar got his first break in 1993, 14 years after he left the ashram, when he received an invitation from Bhimsen Joshi to perform at the Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav in Pune. However, he had to wait almost ten more years before he became a regular on the national festival circuit. Since then, he has been featured in many national musical programs, and has been an "A top" grade artist of All India Radio since 1988. He has received numerous awards including Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (2012), Honorary Doctorate from Karnataka University, Dharwad (2014) and Padma Shri Award by the Government of India (2016).
Smt. Parveen Sultana (Vocal)
Artist Bio
Begum Parveen Sultana is an Indian Hindustani classical singer of the Patiala Gharana. She gave her first stage performance in 1962 when she was 12 and has been recording music since 1965. She has started her professional career with Abdul Majid's Assamese Film Morom Trishna. She has sung for Bollywood movies such as Gadar, Kudrat, Do Boond Pani, and Pakeezah, and several other Assamese films. Recently, she sang the theme song of Vikram Bhatt's 1920. She also sang Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna for the film Kudrat in 1981. She has recorded for HMV, Polydor, Music India, Bharat Records, Auvidis, Magnasound, Sonodisc, and Amigo.

She was awarded the Padma Shri (1976) and Padma Bhushan (2014) by the Government of India, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1998, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama.
Pt. Salil Bhatt (Satvik Veena)
Artist Bio
Disciple and son of Grammy award winner Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt, Pt. Salil Bhatt is the creator of the Satvik Veena and heir to a 500 year old musical legacy. He has performed in India and 40 other countries in a career spanning 30 years. From solo concerts, international collaborations, exotic jugalbandis and global fusion, he has marveled audiences the world over. He is the first ever musician to perform inside the Parliament of Germany and the first Indian musician to be awarded an artiste’s residency in Taiwan. Prestigious titles like Tantri Samrat, Sangeet Ratan, Swami Haridas Sangeet Samman and a Canadian Grammy nomination have been bestowed upon him.