Seema Chaudhary singing 'Aaj Jane Ki Jid Na Karo'

Proud of my students!! Seema is a busy career woman and a mom. It is wonderful to see her finding time for music and accomplish a vocal presentation in front of the camera!! The song is originally sung by legendary Farida Khanun and the poet is Fayyaz Hashmi.




Seema heads Herbinger Group's US head office. She also serves on City of Redmond Arts Commission and pursues her passion for arts thru various channels in the business and the community.

Teaching Indian Music in USA

Most of my sitar students are children, born and being brought up in America. They came with their parents when they were very young. They had never heard sitar before or had no clue about Sa Re Ga Ma. Actually most of the parents hadn't heard me play sitar or sing before they trusted me to teach their children! Thank you friends!

When these children picked up sitar for the very first time they didn't realize how difficult this instrument is or how rare it is to play Indian Classical Music in today's pop World.

They enjoyed playing it to the point that later they stopped their piano lessons and gave that time to sitar!! Thank you my young friends!!

Akshay Belur playing Raga Yaman on Sitar, Nov. 2011

Pround of my students!!! Akshay Belur playing Raga Yaman, Nov.2011

Nikhil and Sahil's Sitar Performance

Proud of my students!!! Nikhil Shridhar and Sahil Shridhar, performing Raga Bageshri, Nov. 2011 :

Raga Malgunji

Ascend : S G m D n S'
Descend : S' n D P m G, R G m g R S or S' n D P m G, M g R S

Here are a few YouTube samples of Raga Malgunji :

Legendary Pndit Gajananbuwa Joshi singing raga Malgunji :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkPi6IfMJB8

Raga Malgunji on sitar by Kartik Sheshadri :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwf72qvPT74

The ever-popular hindi song based on raga Malgunji ,' Na jiya lagena', music by Salil Chowdhary :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f75u1oLXzVM


I came across this comparatively new (2009) song by Shubha Mudgal, I believe it is based on raga Malgunji.
Seekho na nainoki bhasha piya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5YXeIJN5qk

Short excerpt of my BMM 2011 Sitar concert in Chicago

Here is a small excerpt of my Sitar performance ("Swar Zankar") at the BMM 2011 Chicago conference.

Raga: Ahir Bhairav. Accompanying me on tabla: Anil Datar.

Enjoy!

My upcoming Sitar performance at BMM 2011, Chicago

I will be giving a Sitar performance during the BMM 2011 Conference in Chicago coming up in 2 weeks! This will be a traditional North Indian classical solo Sitar recital. 

The conference will be held at the McCormick Place (Lakeside Center), Chicago, from July 21st to July 24th, 2011. The title of my performance is 'Swar Zankar'. The actual time slot for the performance is still being finalized. I will post it as soon as it is.

You are invited! Here is the link to BMM 2011 Conference:

http://bmm2011chicago.org/programs_napc.php

Norhtwest Folklife Festival 2011

Here is a link to the YouTube video recording of my performance at Northwest Folklife Festival, May 28th,2011

Raga Hemant :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jOU2gXMUgU

Folk song :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaEPEtQ-1BU

Folklife Festival 2011

I have been invited to give a a Sitar (solo) recital at the Seattle Folklife Festival again this year. My performance will be at the Central House Theater (at the Seattle Center) on Saturday May 28th at 4.30 pm. I will be playing North Indian Classical Sitar Music. Satyajit Limaye will accompany me on the Tabla. Here is the link to the event:

 http://nwfolklifefestival2011.sched.org/event/95c76612ac7d1ce29e539d9efc869c8e

Raga Hemant

Here are some insights on Raga Hemant by Deepaka Raja's World of Hindustani Music :

http://swaratala.blogspot.com/2007/04/raga-hemant-genesis-and-trajectory.html

A collection of songs based on Raga Hemant by various artists including Pt.Ravi Shankar and Lata Mangeshkar :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ife9Yz5ArH4

And here is my all-time favorite by Pt. Nikhil Banerji

http://www.in.com/music/track/pt-nikhil-banerjee-sitar-songs/raga-hemant-alap-jod-jhala-pt-nikhil-banerjee-526527.html

Rabindra Sangeet Festival in Vancouver

I will be participating in  Rabindra Sangeet Festival in Vancouver on April 30th. The songs are coming up well and  the group is sounding very good. 

Raga Jog by various artists (song, gazal, classical vocal, sitar)

Raga Jog is a popular raga with very interesting ascend and descend. Here are a few different expressions in Raga Jog by different artists :

Ascent : n, S G m P n S'
Descent : S' n P m G m g S

Marathi song by Sudhir Phadake : Tuj Sagun Mhano ki Nirgun Re
http://www.dhingana.com/play/tuz-sagun-mhano-ki-nirgun-re/MzYzNjQ%3D/pop/1

Gazal by Pankaj Udhas : La Pila de Saakiya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWK61iHYc4Y

Raga Jog Tarana by Smt. Veena Sahastrabuddhe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjnBKmboeFY

Raga Jog by Pandit Ravi Shankar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWhsAgC8UqM

Rabindra Sangeet

I just started working on Rabindra Sangeet with a group of wonderful singers and musicians. Here is a link to a Rabindra song sung by Tagore himself (very old recording) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvTim1Kg_F8

Here is my favorite Rabindra song, it is about firefly :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_rCjXYJRIQ&feature=related

Great example of harmonics in sitar

Here is a link to Pandit Balaram Pathak's performance where he produces higher octave melody on lower octave frets using harmonics. Check this out, it is a very short video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liWjsRRdliA

Concert by Josh Feinberg last weekend

Attended a great performance and lecture-demonstration by Josh Feinberg organized by Pratidhwani last weekend.  Josh demonstrated harmonics in Sitar, followed by authentic Maihar style bandishes and taans.