Saptak Annual Festival 2010 – Viraasat (1st till 13th Jan 2010)

The famous Russian composer and concert pianist Sergei Rachmaninov had once said that, “Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.” To delve deeper into the world of music, a group of performers and music connoisseurs in Ahmedabad started on a journey in 1980 The quest was to connect with all those who were associated with Indian classical music – as a performer, as a student or as a rasika (listener). The initiative had the blessings of two legends of Indian Classical Music – Pt. Ravishankar and Pt. Kishan Maharaj. Nearly 30 years later, the spark of inspiration continues to burn bright, lighting up the path for newer initiatives that continue to evolve.

Saptak annual festival of music
The annual festival of music organised by Saptak from the 1st to 13th of January every year, is a musical feast that is the delight of any music connoisseur. This celebration of music is quite a unique experience in itself. The evening’s performance always begins with an emerging talent. With several luminaries in the audience, this is a grand stage for the young performer.

As the evening progresses, some of the most renowned performers in Indian classical music take the stage. The rasikas often leave in the early hours of the morning with a Raag Baghesri, Malkauns or Lalit still humming in their ears. It’s a celebration of music in its purest form. There are no tickets, no reservations, and one gets to be in the hall only through invitation. With the hall brimming over with highly knowledgeable and sensitive music connoisseurs, the performers are motivated to put forth their best performance at Saptak.

What makes the annual fare a memorable one is that it scales over popular demands to provide a rich bouquet of experience. While the audience gets treated to vintage khayal performances from the established maestros, they also have an opportunity to experience the dhrupad gayaki, thumris, rajasthani folk music, instrumental recitals of sitar, sarangi, flute, the mohan veena, rudra veena and percussion recitals on the tabla, pakhawaj and even the mridangam by the great contemporary musicians and musical experimentations of fusion . With nearly 125 top artistes and about 50 performances spread over 13 days (15 Baithaks including 2 morning baithaks), the music lovers from all over India and abroad converge at the Saptak music festival for an unparalleled experience.

No	Artist Name	Instrument / Vocal			Event Date	Event Time
1	Shri Bhaskar Nath	Shehnai			01-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Ram Nath	Shehnai
	Shri Manu Maharaj	Sur Mandal
	Shri Kedar Nath	Tabla
2	Ustad Shujat Khan	Sitar
	Shri Sandeep Das	Tabla
3	Pandit Jasraj	Vocal
	Shri Ratan Mohan Sharma	Vocal
	Pt.Nandan Mehta	Tabla
	Shri Vijay Ghate	Tabla
	Shri Mukund Petkar	Harmonium
1	Ms.Geeta Javadekar	Vocal			02-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Jajwalya Shukla	Tabla
	Shri Raju Gandharva	Harmonium
2	Jayini Shah	Sitar
	Aishwarya Jalnapurka	Sitar
	Aastha Kachchi	Sitar
	Kabirdan Gadhvi	Tabla
3	Pt.Shounak Abhisheki	Vocal
	Shri Arvind Azad	Tabla
	Shri Sudhir Nayak	Harmonium
4	Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia	Flute
	Shri Vijay Ghate	Tabla
1	Shri Basant Kabra	Sarod			03-1-10	10:00:AM
	Shri Akram Khan	Tabla
2	Felicitation of Padmabhushan Dr.R.C.Mehta	–
3	Ms.Shubha Mudgal	Vocal
	Shri Aneesh Pradhan	Tabla
	Shri Sudhir Nayak	Harmonium
4	Shreyansh Shah	Tabla				08:30:PM
	Rahul Kushawaha	Tabla
	Kalpesh Bhojak	Harmonium
5	Ms.Pratima Tilak	Vocal
	Shri Aneesh Pradhan	Tabla
	Shri Sudhir Yardi	Harmonium
6	Ustad Nishat Khan	Sitar
	Shri Fazal Qureshi	Tabla
7	Pt.Ulhas Kashalkar	Vocal
	Shri Yogesh Samsi	Tabla
	Shri Sudhir Nayak	Harmonium
	Shri Sarwar Hussain	Sarangi
1	Ms.Rujul Pathak-Pota	Vocal			04-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Munjal Mehta	Tabla
	Shri Raju Gandharva	Harmonium
2	Shri Manu Seen	Sitar
	Shri Himanshu Mahant	Tabla
3	Shri Venkatesh Kumar	Vocal
	Shri Prithviraj Mishra	Tabla
	Shri Shishirchandra Bhatt	Harmonium
	Shri Moinuddin Khan	Sarangi
4	Shri Amaan Ali Khan	Sarod
	Shri Ayaan Ali Khan	Sarod
	Shri Shubhanker Banerjee	Tabla
1	Pt.Krishna Mohan Bhatt	Sitar			05-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Shubhanker Banerjee	Tabla
2	Pt.L.K.Pandit	Vocal
	Shri Akram Khan	Tabla
	Ustad Mehmood Dhaulpuri	Harmonium
	Shri Ikram Khan	Sarangi
3	Pt.Shivkumar Sharma	Santoor
	Shri Yogesh Samsi	Tabla
1	Ms.Sanhita Nandi	Vocal			06-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Pravin Shinde	Tabla
	Shri Yameen Khan	Harmonium
2	Ustad Ashish Khan	Sarod
	Pt.Pooran Maharaj	Tabla
3	Ms.Jayanti Ravi	Vocal
	Shri Vellore Ramabhadran	Mridangam
	Ms.Usha Rajagopal	Violin
4	Zakir Hussain	Tabla
	Shri Sabir Khan	Sarangi
1	Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan	Vocal			07-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Rafiuddin Sabri	Tabla
	Shri Sudhir Yardi	Harmonium
2	Pt.Vishwa Mohan Bhatt	Mohan Veena
	Rajasthani Folk Group
	Anwar Khan Manganiar	Lok Geet
	Gazi Khan	Khadtal
	Ghevar Khan	Kamayacha
	Firoz Khan	Dholak
	Barkat Khan	Lok Geet
	Shri Ramkumar Mishra	Tabla
3	Ustad Sultan Khan	Sarangi
	Shri Sabir Khan	Sarangi- Support
	Shri Dilshad Khan	Sarangi- Support
	Shri Prithviraj Mishra	Tabla
1	Shri Josh Bennet	Sitar			08-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Jay Dabgar	Tabla
2	Shri Vikas Parikh	Vocal
	Shri Pravin Shinde	Tabla
	Shri Raju Gandharva	Harmonium
3	Pt.Bhajan Sopori	Santoor
	Shri Rafiuddin Sabri	Tabla
4	Pt.Rajan Mishra	Vocal
	Pt.Sajan Mishra	Vocal
	Pt.Kumar Bose	Tabla
	Shri Dharmanath Mishra	Harmonium
1	Shri Alla Rakha Kalavant	Sarangi			09-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Prithviraj Mishra	Tabla
2	Pt.Ajay Pohanker	Vocal
	Shri Arvind Azad	Tabla
	Shri Dharmanath Mishra	Harmonium
	Shri Alla Rakha Kalavant	Sarangi
3	Ustad Shahid Parvez	Sitar
	Shri Shakir Khan	Sitar- Support
	Pt.Kumar Bose	Tabla
1	Megh Vayada	Vocal – Vandana			10-1-10	05:30:PM
	Anushree Das	Vocal – Vandana
	Radhika Parikh	Vocal – Vandana
	Trusha Trivedi	Vocal – Vandana
	Shri Vasishth Shastri	Tabla
2	Shri Prashant Mallik	Dhrupad
	Shri Nishant Mallik	Dhrupad
	Shri Ravishanker Upadhyay	Pakhawaj
3	Dr.N.Rajam	Violin
	Dr.Sangeeta Shanker	Violin
	Kum.Ragini Shanker	Violin- Support
	Kum. Nandini Shanker	Violin- Support
	Shri RamKumar Mishra	Tabla
4	Shri Ravishaker Upadhyay	Pakhawaj
	Shri Rishi Upadhyay	Pakhawaj- Support
	Ms.Mahima Upadhyay	Pakhawaj- Support
	Ms.Malati Upadhyay	Harmonium
	Shri Ikram Khan	Sarangi
5	Ms.Shaswati Mandal Pal	Vocal
	Pt.Gopal Mishra	Tabla
	Shri Amit Thakker	Harmonium
	Shri Alla Rakha Kalavant	Sarangi
6	Pt. Debu Choudhary	Sitar
	Shri Shubh Maharaj	Tabla
7	Shri Umakant Gundecha	Vocal- Dhrupad
	Shri Ramakant Gundecha	Vocal – Dhrupad
	Shri Akhilesh Gundecha	Pakhawaj
1	Saptak Instrumental Ensemble:				11-1-10	08:30:PM
	Parv Tapodhan	Sitar
	Vinita Shukla	Sitar
	Hiral Shah	Sitar
	Bindu Patel	Sitar
	Bharvi Shah	Sitar
	Vibhavari Save	Sitar
	Shridevi Yajnik	Sitar
	Shital Patel	Sarod
	Adit Ravi	Flute
	Dr.S.B.Chakrabarty	Violin
	Sapan Anjaria	Tabla
2	Ms.Monica Shah	Vocal
	Shri Nakul Mishra	Tabla
	Shr Kishore Kunte	Harmonium
3	Shri Rahul Sharma	Santoor
	Shri Aditya Kalyanpur	Tabla
	Shri Bhavani Shankar	Pakhawaj
4	Ustad Rashid Khan	Vocal
	Shri Vijay Ghate	Tabla
	Ustad Mehmood Dhaulpuri	Harmonium
	Shri Murad Ali	Sarangi
1	Ms.Madhavi Jhala	Kathak			12-1-10	08:30:PM
	Shri Vasishth Shastri	Tabla
	Shri Mehmood Khan	Sitar
	Shri Prahar Vora	Vocal
	Shri Alla Rakha Kalavant	Sarangi
	Shri Shishirchandra Bhatt	Pakhawaj
2	Shri Saugato Roy Chaudhary	Sarod
	Shri Debajyoti Sanyal	Tabla
3	Pt.Ajoy Chakraborty	Vocal
	Shri Yogesh Samsi	Tabla
	Shri Ajay Joglekar	Harmonium
1	Shri Devi Prasad	Sitar			13-1-10	08:30:PM
	Pt.Gopal Mishra	Tabla
2	Ms. Uma Garg	Vocal
	Shri Nakul Mishra	Tabla
	Shri Yameen Khan	Harmonium
3	Ustad Amjad Ali Khan	Sarod
	Shri Sandeep Das	Tabla
	Shri Vineet Vyas	Tabla

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Other Saptak Events

Apart from the annual festival, Saptak also organises a week long Saptak Sankalp Saptah Festival to showcase and promote emerging talents alongwith accomplished, senior Gurus. Shorter festivals to celebrate various seasons such as Vasant (spring) and Varsha (monsoon) are also organised by Saptak.

(Source: 12/2009 – Saptak.org)

Impressions from the Saptak 2006

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Manju Mehta (Sitar) – Saptak 1999

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