Baluji Shrivastav | |
---|---|
Birth name | Dhanoday Shrivastav |
Born | Usmanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | 23 January 1951
Genres | Indian classical, rock, pop, jazz |
Occupation(s) | Composer, musician |
Instruments | Sitar, tabla, dilruba, surbahar, pakhavaj |
Years active | 1983–present |
Labels | ARC Music (1983) |
Associated acts | Massive Attack, Stevie Wonder, Guy Barker, Hossam Ramzy, Jah Wobble |
Website | www.baluji.com , www.balujimusicfoundation.org |
Dhanoday Shrivastav OBE (born 21 June 1959), known professionally as Baluji Shrivastav, is an Indian/British musician and instrumentalist who plays a variety of traditional Indian instruments including the sitar, dilruba, surbahar, pakhavaj and tabla.
Born in Usmanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Baluji Shrivastav began first studied music when he was sent away as a child to live and study at Ajmer Blind School after being blinded as a baby.
Shrivastav went on to graduate from University of Lucknow with a B.A. in Vocal Studies and Sitar. This was shortly followed by a further B.A. in Tabla and an M.A. in Sitar from Allahabad University.
Shrivastav is married to the jazz singer Linda Shanovitch. [1]
Shrivastav performs and records with a number of different ensembles including his own group Jazz Orient/Re-Orient which has released seven albums to date.[ when? ] He joined Grand Union Orchestra in 1986, and has since recorded with many pop artists such as Boy George, Annie Lennox and Kylie Minogue. [2]
In 2012, Shrivastav founded the Inner Vision Orchestra, [3] comprising 14 blind musicians. [4] The Inner Vision Orchestra was part funded by Arts Council England, the principal public funding body for the arts in England. [5]
In 2012, Shrivastav performed at the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games alongside the British Paraorchestra and Coldplay. [6] [7]
Shrivastav has performed and taught all over the world and has recorded a number of albums with a wide range of contemporary artists including Doves, Stevie Wonder, Massive Attack, BT, Annie Lennox, Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, Guy Barker and Andy Sheppard.
Shrivastav was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to music. [8]
In 2008, Shrivastav established the Baluji Music Foundation, a London-based charity which, as stated on their website, aims to promote "the understanding and enjoyment of music and performing arts from the Indian Sub-Continent in all its traditional and evolving forms". The Charity particularly welcomes the participation of disabled people in music, and has thus founded the Inner Vision Orchestra of blind and visually impaired musicians.
The Baluji Music Foundation is a charity registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales, number 1130985.
Ravi Shankar, whose name is often preceded by the title Pandit (scholar), was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known exponent of North Indian classical music in the second half of the 20th century, and influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999.
Raga rock is rock or pop music with a pronounced Indian influence, either in its construction, its timbre, or its use of Indian musical instruments, such as the sitar and tabla. In addition, rock music from the 1960s and 1970s that incorporates South Asian musical influences and instruments, along with Western ideas of the Indian subcontinent, is often regarded as raga rock.
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Indo jazz is a musical genre consisting of jazz, classical and Indian influences. Its structure and patterns are based on Indian music with typical jazz improvisation overlaid. While the term itself may be comparatively recent, the concept dates at least to the mid-1950s. Musicians including John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef and others reflect Indian influences.
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Wajahat Khan is an Indian sarod player and composer who has earned international acclaim since 1977. He is the third son and disciple of sitar and surbahar player Imrat Khan, nephew of sitar player Vilayat Khan and a member of India's illustrious multi-generational musical Khan family which founded the Imdadkhani Gharana. He was born in the mid-1960s in Calcutta, India and now divides his time between London and India.
Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee is an Indian classical sitar and surbahar maestro of the Imdadkhani gharana (school), recognizable by his intricate vocalic playing complemented by spectacular high speed playing. He holds a unique distinction of being the ever first artist in history to perform in the House of Commons, London. Famously proclaimed the "sitar artist of the century" by veena great Balachander, he has performed in thousands of concerts since the 1970s in India, America, Australia, the UAE, and almost all of Europe.
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Ashwin Kumar Batish Hindi: अश्विन कुमार बातिश is a sitar and tabla player.
Paul Livingstone is an American sitarist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is one of the few American disciples of Pt. Ravi Shankar, also trained under Rajeev Taranath and Amiya Dasgupta all of the Senia Maihar Gharana.
Pandit Gopal Krishan Sharma (1926-2004) was an exponent of Vichitra Veena, an ancient Indian musical instrument.
Harihar Rao was an Indian-born American musician, noted for playing tabla and sitar.
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Paraorchestra, sometimes referred to as British Paraorchestra, based in Bristol, is an integrated orchestra of professional disabled and non-disabled musicians - the first ever orchestra of its kind in the United Kingdom. The Paraorchestra was formed by conductor Charles Hazlewood in 2011 as a project to create a platform for the top disabled musicians, with the hope that its success would lead to better integration of the disabled into music and performing arts.
Tana Mana is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, originally credited to "the Ravi Shankar Project" and released in 1987. The album is an experimental work by Shankar, mixing traditional instrumentation with 1980s electronic music and sampling technology. Shankar recorded much of Tana Mana in 1983 with sound effects innovator Frank Serafine, but it remained unreleased until Peter Baumann, head of new age record label Private Music, became attached to the project. The album title translates to mean "body and mind".
Pandit Manilal Nag is an Indian classical sitar player and an exponent of the Bishnupur gharana of Bengal. He was given the Padma Shri Award, the fourth highest civilian award in India in 2020.
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