The Bhavan, London has been celebrating its golden jubilee with a whole year of specially curated performances, workshops, and events. As a part of their finale, they hosted a two-weekend celebration of Indian classical music featuring instrumentalists and vocalists.

Weekend One

On 18 March 2023, sitar maestro Kushal Das was accompanied on the tabla by Rajkumar Misra. Known for his inimitable style, Kushal Das treated the audience to raga Yaman and the rare raga Chandra Kaushiki. And on 19 March, the Mysore Brothers gave a duet violin recital accompanied by double mridangam by M Balachandar and Bangalore Prakash.

Beginning with raga Bauli, they took the audience on a journey through various ragas and moods to thunderous applause. Their rendition of the ragam-tanam-pallavi in Sankarabharanam was received with rapture. They concluded the evening with a composition of Sree Ganapathi Sachidananda Swami.

The Mysore brothers and Pt. Kushal Das got together in a live conversation and interaction with the audience on 19 March and threw light on the deeper insights and nuances of their respective instruments. The audience had the chance to ask them questions and gain their perspectives about their art forms.

Weekend Two

On Saturday, 25 March, maestro Sanjeev Abhyankar’s was accompanied by Rajkumar Misra on the tabla and Abhishek G Shinkar on the harmonium. Abhyankar began with the raga Ahir Bhairav and continued with Charukesi. The latter part of the recital saw Marathi abhangs and devotional songs, rendered mellifluously.

On Sunday, 26 March, well-known vocalist, P. Unnikrishnan began his Carnatic vocal recital with raga Malayamarutam and went on to present Kalyana Vasantam and Mohanam. He was accompanied by Balu Raguraman on the violin and M. Balachandar on the mridangam and K. Sithambaranathan on the morsing.

Both the recitals saw a great response from the audience and were a perfect finale to their yearlong celebrations of their golden jubilee.