The musical waves
Utsav Lal, now 14, is a musical genius who can play the piano with effortless ease. He has played at over 30 concerts in India and abroad.
What started as a hobby at the age of seven has, in fact, turned out to be a lot more. Utsav Lal, it turns out, is a musical genius who can play the piano with effortless ease.
From the age of nine, Utsav Lal, now 14, has played at over 30 concerts in India and abroad. Recently, he played at the India International Centre (ICC) and the audience, which had come with high expectations, did not feel let down.
What was special about this concert was that this was the first time that Utsav was playing the Indian classical music, accompanied by Irfaan Khan on the violin and Tuhin Chakravorty on the tabla.
It can perhaps be termed as fusion music but it was evident that Utsav had taken a big step forward in making his music unique. Apart from playing the ragasin their classical form, Utsav also performed the film adaptation of a classical raga.
The highlight of the show, though, was the jugalbandi between Utsav and the violinist Irfaan Khan. It was in adapting the ragas that Utsav's musical genius was made apparent and the boy has big plans of making full use of this gift. "Apart from continuing to play the piano, I want to be a composer," is what he says. His main aim, however, is to take "Indian music abroad and make the world familiar with it."
"People are not as well informed about Indian classical music as they should be and need to be taught the technicalities and nuances" is what he feels. Utsav has trained under Brian Silas and is currently training under John Rafael. He says he owes a lot to them and that they have helped him a lot in "reaching where he is today".
This talented youngster has only just come onto the scene and seeing where he is in such a short time gives us an insight into what he'll achieve in the coming years. He is definitely an artist to watch out for and one can safely assume that he has a bright future.
