BANGALORE: The violin jugalbandhi featuring Pandit Prakash Sontakke and Vidwan CN Chandrasheskar slated to be held on September 5 at 5.30 pm promises to mesmerise music aficionados at the Indian Heritage Academy Hall, the cultural hub of Koramanagala.
The duo accompanied by Adarsh Shenoy (tabla) and Jayachandra Rao (mrudangam) will perform at the programme organised by Kalaabhimaani to mark the death anniversary of KL Subbarao, who was an ardent admirer of Hindustani classical music. Kalaabhimaani was set up to promote this form of music by Suchitra Prasad, Subbarao’s elder daughter and her husband Badriprasad in 2006.
Prakash Sontakke is the only musician of Karnataka to win the Independent Music Awards for World fusion and the only guitarist of India playing different styles on the Electric Slide Guitar. Prakash is the son and disciple of Raj Bhau Sontakke,a doyen of Gwalior gharana and a disciple of the maestro Sangeeth Martand Pandit Omkarnath Thakur. An accomplished and highly talented AIR artiste, Prakash believes in formal structured learning, which reflects in his Masters Degree in music (guitar, violin and vocal) and is well on his way to a doctorate. Though from a very traditional Hindustani classical background, he is equally comfortable with other genres as he is with classical.
His musical albums include Inward Quest, a solo Hawaiian guitar CD, which was released in Europe, Moments of Melody, a jugalbandi of Hawaiian guitar and flute, Mangaldhwani, a trio of Hawaiian guitar, santoor and flute, Om, a fusion album of the band Layataranga based on Carnatic Classical taalas, Hindustani instrumental and western orchestration and Sath- Sath, an instrumental fusion of Hawaiian guitar, mandolin and pianos adapted for Kathak choreography. His works also include Sai Bhajans on Instruments, an album featuring Hawaiian guitar and several instruments, Dhund, a Hindi Pop album sung by Sriram Iyer and composed, written and scored by Prakash. His recent work, Kamasutra Lounge Collective was released by Universal Music USA.
CN Chandrashekhar, who hails from a traditional musicians’ family, has been awarded the Government of India cultural scholarship in 1975. He had his Hindustani music training, both vocal and violin under late Pundit Shri Krishnanand of kirana gharana. He has many awards and titles to his credit, to name a few Thantri VadyaVithpanna, Suswara Vadya Nipuna, Nada Chintamani, Sangeeth kala Tapaswi, Thanthi vadya Kala Bhushana etc. He rendered his first concert at the young age of nine and has traveled all over India and abroad.
Chandrashekhar has composed and conducted Vadya Vrinda programmes for All India Radio and Doordarshan. He has performed Vadya Vrinda during the music festival conducted by the Sangeeth Natak Academy, Delhi in 1999. He has also participated in Akashwani Sangeeth Sammellans programmes. Chandrashekhar is presently working with All India Radio Bangalore as an ‘A’ grade artiste.
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