E-Paper
Santoor maestro Bhajan Sopori passes away at 73
Santoor maestro and Padma Shri awardee Bhajan Sopori passed away on June 2 in a Gurugram hospital.
Santoor maestro and Padma Shri awardee Bhajan Sopori passed away on June 2 in Fortis Hospital, Gurugram at the age of 73. The Santoor legend was battling colon cancer stage 4 and was under treatment since February 2022; the disease had spread to his liver and bones, according to a statement released by Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon.
"Noted Santoor exponent Pandit Bhajan Sopori was diagnosed with colon cancer stage IV. The disease had spread to the liver and bones. He was under treatment at Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI), Gurugram, since February 2022 and had received chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy over the last couple of months. He was admitted at FMRI on May 18, 2022, after his condition had deteriorated. In spite of the best efforts of the doctors, however, he succumbed to multi-organ failure on June 2, 2022," the statement read.
The santoor player was born in Sopore in Kashmir Valley in 1948 and belonged to the Sufiana gharana of Indian classical music. He was great-grandson of Pandit Shankar Pandit, who had developed the style popularly known as the ‘Sufi Baaj’ (style), based on Sufiana Qalam and Hindustani Classical music.
Hailed as 'Saint of the Santoor' and the 'King of Strings', Sopori won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992 and the Padma Shri in 2004. In 2009 he was honoured with the Baba Allaudin Khan Award and M N Mathur award in 2011 for his contribution to Indian classical music.
Sopori composed music for over 6000 songs in various languages and dialects like Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri, Sindhi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Himachali, Rajasthani, Telegu, Tamil, etc. and also foreign languages like Persian, Arabic, etc and his work was part of films, commercials, documentaries, serials, operas and choirs among others.
Pandit Sopori, who was considered as the cultural link between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India, also ran a music academy called SaMaPa (Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts).
Sopori who learnt western classical music from Washington University and Hindustani from his grandgather S.C. Sopori and father Shambhoo Nath, was all of five when he gave his first public performance in 1953.
Meanwhile Twitter tributes have started to pour in for the Santoor legend.
