Utsav Lal (born August 18, 1992) is an Indian pianist, educator, composer, and performing musician. Based out of New York, his work on the piano has been deeply influenced by Dhrupad and Indian classical music.
Utsav Lal has performed several piano concerts with a repertoire of Indian ragas at venues including Carnegie Hall, New York, [1] John F. Kennedy Center, Washington DC, [2] India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, [3] KonsertHuset, Sweden, [4] Southbank Centre, London [5] and others. Lal holds a Bachelors in Jazz from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow [6] and a Masters in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston. [7] Lal won Ireland's MAMA Award (2008) for Multiculturalism in the individual category, [8] Yamaha Jazz Scholar award (2014), [9] TiE Aspire Young Indian Achiever Award (2012) [10] and was named a Young Steinway Artist (2010) by piano-makers, Steinway & Sons. [11]
Indian record label Times Music released his debut album Piano Moods of Indian Ragas in 2008. Subsequent album releases are "Ragas Dance off Piano Keys", "Ragas Al Pianoforte", "Ragas to Reels", [12] and a solo recording of ragas on the "Fluid Piano", released by the "Fluid Piano" tuning label (2016). [13] Lal released his sixth album, "Indian Classical Music on the Piano", featuring tabla player Nitin Mitta in November 2018. He has collaborated with several Irish musicians including Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill, [14] Sam Comerford, [15] Dave Sheridan, [16] Winifred Horan, [17] and is recognised for his "Ragas to Reels" [18] [19] concert tours that bring together Indian classical music and Traditional Irish music in a piano and flute combination. He has also performed in collaboration with Indian musicians including sitar player, Hidayat Hussain Khan, [20] violinist, Sharat Chandra Srivastava, [21] percussionists, Talvin Singh, [22] Pt. Samir Chatterjee, [23] and flautist, Rakesh Chaurasia. [24]
Utsav Lal is currently on the teaching faculty of Piano School of NYC [25] and has conducted several performance workshops at venues including Global Music Institute, India [26] and "Breaking Boundaries" workshop series in India [27] and USA. [28]
Ravi Shankar, was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert 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.
Hariprasad Chaurasia is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition.
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was an Indian classical musician and santoor player who is credited with adapting the santoor for Indian classical music. As a music composer, he collaborated with Indian flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia under the collaborative name Shiv–Hari and composed music for such hit Indian films as Faasle (1985), Chandni (1989), and Lamhe (1991).
John O'Conor is an Irish pianist and pedagogue, and former director of the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Narasimhan Ravikiran is an Indian slide instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and orator, who created the concept of melharmony. He is the son of gottuvadhyam player Chitravina Narasimhan and the grandson of Narayan Iyengar, who was also a Carnatic musician.
Yoonjung "Yoonie" Han is a South Korean-born American classical pianist.
Christian Charles Blackshaw is a British classical pianist.
Arvind Parikh is an Indian classical sitar player.
Mysore Brothers are an Indian classical violinist duo: Mysore Nagaraj and Mysore Manjunath. They trained under their father Sri Mahadevappa, a violinist in the tradition of Sri Tyagaraja, composer of Carnatic classical music. They received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award from the government of India in 2017.
Deepak Ram is a South African born flautist, composer, keyboard player and producer of Indian origin. Deepak is considered a master of bansuri, an Indian flute of ancient origin made from bamboo. He is a senior disciple of world renowned bansuri maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia under whom he studied Indian classical music. Deepak's versatile playing and breadth of musical repertoire melds classical and improvisational techniques of Indian Raga, Jazz, Blues and Flamenco into a fusion that has garnered critical acclaim internationally. Deepak was awarded a SAMA in 2000 for 'Best Instrumental Album', Searching for Satyam. He has contributed on Shango and Labyrinth albums by the trance group Juno Reactor which was featured as the title soundtrack for The Matrix - Revolutions, Dead Bees on a Cake album by Jazz artist David Sylvian among others.
Vanessa Benelli Mosell is an Italian pianist and conductor.
Merlin D'Souza (Merlyn) is an Indian composer and pianist from Mumbai. She is a musician whose work includes composing for film, albums, theatre and advertising. She is based at Bandra, a Mumbai suburb. Formerly the Asian jazz ambassador for Hennessy X.O. – she has toured extensively, from Australia to China, from Europe to the United States.
George Brooks is an American saxophonist known for combining jazz and Indian classical music. He is the founder of the jazz fusion groups Summit, Aspada, Bombay Jazz, the Raga Bop Trio, and Elements.
Gurukul Pratishthan, a charitable trust, is an institute with the ideology of promoting and encouraging the Indian classical music and various other forms of art. It was founded by Shree Vivek Sonar. He is one amongst the senior most deciples of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, a Padma Vibhushan holder and a well-known artist of the instrument Bansuri.
Jean-Philippe Rio-Py, known professionally as Riopy, is a French pianist and composer. Self-taught since a very young age, he has performed in many international prestigious halls, and written several albums classified as contemporary classical music. His compositions have been featured in commercials, movie trailers, and feature films.
The Bansuri Utsav is a two-day musical festival which is especially dedicated to flutes. The 8th Bansuri Utsav was held in Mumbai in Ravindra Natya Mandir. The festival is held annually and till 2015 it was held in Thane in Maharashtra.
Runki Goswami is an Indian classical singer and composer who sings in 17 different Indian languages, also a Telugu music director.
Ailbhe McDonagh is an Irish concert cellist and composer. She performs worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist with many albums to her name. In addition to her playing, McDonagh is a prolific composer having written works for orchestra, chamber music ensembles and pedagocial purposes. Her compositions have been published by Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard, RIAM and ABRSM. McDonagh is a professor of cello at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, Ireland.
Rashid Mustafa is a Tabla player empanelled in the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in 2010 under the category Tabla for Hindustani classical music. Mustafa was awarded the Thirakwa Award by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1984 and also received the Crystal Award from Yehudi Menuhin in Davos, Switzerland.
Sophia Agranovich is a Soviet-born American classical concert pianist, recording artist, music educator and artistic director. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the Juilliard School, where she taught piano as a teaching fellow. She continued her doctoral studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her live performances and discography have won top international awards and critical acclaim. Her albums are charting in top 10 across all musical genres on One World Music Radio and on World Top Radio Airplay Charts. A Steinway Artist, she is concertizing at major venues worldwide, and has been described by Fanfare Magazine as "a bold, daring pianist in the tradition of the Golden Age Romantics" and praised by the American Record Guide for her "magnificent shading and superior musicianship."