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Annual music festival gets underway at Varanasi’s Sankatmochan Temple
25 Padma Awardee artistes will perform during the Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh from April 10 to April 16
With Ustad Bhaskar Nath of Delhi playing Shehnai, the week-long Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh began at Sankatmochan Temple here on Monday. This is 100th edition of Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh.
Supriya Shah played sitar, whereas Anubrata Chatterjee played Tabla. Vocalist Swar Ratan Sharma presented devotional numbers, whereas Rajneesh Tiwari played Tabla and Mohit Sahani played Samvadini.
Gadam Padmaja Reddy gave a Kuchipudi recital, vocalist Pt Nagraj Havildar, Sarangi Ustad Moinuddin and singer Jasbir Jassi and Pandit Ulhas Kasalkar and Pt Purvayan Chatterjee also performed in the samaroh on the first day.
Sankatmochan Temple chief priest and organiser of the event prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra said 180 artistes, including renowned ghazal singer Talat Aziz and 25 Padma Awardee artistes will perform during the Sankatmochan Sangeet Samaroh from April 10 to April 16. The music festival is organised every year on the premises of the Sankatmochan Temple.
Mihsra said that when he called Talat Aziz to invite him for the festival, the ghazal singer received the invitation with elation.
The festival is known for giving opportunities to emerging artistes to perform on the platform with the country’s top classical and semi-classical artistes, he said.
Indian percussionist Shivmani, U Rajesh, Mridang maestro Yella Vekanteshwar Rao, Mohan Veena creator Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt will also perform in the samaroh. Ghazal singer Talat Aziz and vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan are among the prominent classical artistes to perform in the festival.
Bhajan maestro Anoop Jalota, Bilal Khan of Kolkata, Punjabi singer Jasbir Jassi and Javed Ali of ‘Kunfaya’ fame will also perform at the samaroh.
