Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival 2020: Healing touch of Indian classical music that Delhi needs

The 73rd edition of Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival 2020 began on March 12 and will run till March 15. At the lawns of Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, music maestros and younger talents will enthral the audience with some of the best performances in Indian traditional music.

The festival is one of the oldest in the country that celebrates Indian classical music in a unique way. Shobha Deepak Singh (Director and Vice-Chairperson - Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra) has devoted herself over the years to create an annual chapter that has won hearts of connoisseurs of tasteful music time and again.

The reputed music festival will be adorned with the performances by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Rakesh Chaurasia and Ustad Rashid Khan, Prashant and Nishant Mallick (Mallick Brothers), Manjiri Asanare Kelkar, Niladri Kumar, Bhuvanesh Komkali, Rahul Sharma, Ulhas Kashalkar and Subhra Guha.

Commenting on the festival, renowned classical singer Ustad Rashid Khan said, "It is really wonderful that Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra organises Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival on an annual basis, which is very popular among all the music lovers. They have had the best musicians performing in this music festival and keeping alive the interest in classical music. Probably, there has been no musician who has not participated in this Music Festival. It is indeed a pleasure for me to be a part of this grand event organised by Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra.”

Revered and loved the world over, Indian classical Sarod player Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Bangash became nostalgic while talking about the Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival. “As a young musician, I remember performing many times at the festival. It used to take place in modern school ground under the shamiana and tent. It gives lots of opportunity to the people of Delhi to come and attend a free concert. I am looking forward to performing here. after a long time, I am once again performing in this Festival. I hope the people of Delhi will be there to share our humble presentation,” he said.

Rakesh Chaurasia, a well-known flute player too recalled performing in the festival many times as a young artist and emphasized that the Music Festival is a great platform for the young talents and it has maintained its class and reputation successfully carrying forward traditions of the Indian classical performing art.

Through Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival, the Bharatiya Kala Kendra has made a mark for itself in the arena of performing arts and has been nurturing its basic ideology of binding rich Indian traditions onto the wings of the current generation as it paces through the clouds of materialism.

While the festival celebrates renowned markers of the music world giving a chance to the audiences to plunge into moments so precious, it also gives an opportunity to young talent to reverberate the ambience with their talent; inspiring one and all.

In the troubled and traumatic times of today when Delhi is gradually recovering from the brutal violence which shocked the capital city a few weeks ago, Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival 2020 comes as a soothing and healing touch which music has the power to provide beyond the borders of language, caste, class, colour and religion.