*Flute maestro Chaurasia pays musical tribute to late Sikandar Alam *
*Viraj Shukla*
*
*Cuttack: Internationally acclaimed flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia
paid tribute to departed singer Sikander Alam who passed away recently, in a
classical music concert held at the Heritage Hall in Ravenshaw University
here on Monday under the aegis of Society for Promotion of Indian Classical
Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY). After paying deep obeisance to
the great singer and lamenting his absence in the concert, he started his
recital with a musical composition dedicated to late Sikander Alam, who was
his close friend and colleague at All India Radio, Cuttack.

He continued his hour-long recital with a composition in Raag Bhupali
followed by a pahadi dhun. He was accompanied on the tabla by Pandit
Subhankar Banerjee and supported on the flute by two of his front-ranking
students.

Pandit Chaurasia’s concert was a historic one as he performed in Cuttack
after several years. The cultural city of Cuttack is the cradle of his
professional career where he was a staff musician at All India Radio in the
1960s and worked for many years here before moving to Mumbai. He has played
for stalwarts of Odia music industry like Balkrushna Dash, Bhubaneswar
Mishra, Akshaya Mohanty, Sikander Alam and many other innumerable Odia
songs, modern and devotional, recorded for All India Radio, Cuttack and His
Master’s Voice (HMV), now Saregama.

Hundreds of students, faculty members, music lovers, eminent citizens and
connoisseurs of art and culture including vice-chancellor, Ravenshaw
University Devdas Chhotray, higher education, culture and tourism
minister Debi Prasad Mishra and several other dignitaries attended the
classical music concert.

Pandit Chaurasia however lamented the declining popularity of classical
music among the youth. He further lamented over the fact that All India
Radio, Cuttack is airing only modern songs these days oblivious of its
glorious cultural heritage. He fondly recalled his days when he used to
rehearse for recordings at the erstwhile Ravenshaw College. At the end of
his concert, he sought the help of the audience to remind him of some old
non-film Odia songs, especially Odissi, chhanda, champu and timeless radio
songs, and also played a couple of them. Before concluding his spellbinding
performance, he took the audience by surprise and amusement by playing the
famous Christmas song, Jingle Bells on his flute. He promised the audience
to come back again and play some of their favourite Odia songs.

It may be noted that the concert was held as an overture to the 26th
National Convention of SPIC MACAY scheduled to be held in Ravenshaw
University in May 2011. The concert was the first event under the curtain
raiser programme ahead of the ensuing weeklong convention and similar
concerts by renowned musicians will take place every month till May next
year, University sources said.

Regarded as a rare combination of innovator and traditionalist, Pandit
Chaurasia has collaborated with several western musicians, including John
McLaughlin, Yehudi Menuhin and Jan Garbarek, and has also composed hit music
for a number of Hindi films like Chandni and Darr with santoor maestro Shiv
Kumar Sharma. He has won a number of prestigious awards including
the Sangeet Natak Akademi (1984), Konark Samman (1992), Padma Bhushan (1992),
Yash Bharati Samman (1994), Padma Vibhushan (2000) and Akshaya Samman
(2009).