Spring 2025 CASI Saluja Global Fellow Lecture
Event (PCPSE Auditorium, 1st floor): 4:30-6:00pm
Reception (Blank Forum, 2nd floor): 6:00-7:00pm
About the Speaker:
Vocalist Shubha Mudgal is one of India’s acclaimed exponents of North Indian raag music and specializes in two vocal forms known as khayal and thumri-dadra, respectively. As a first generation professional woman musician, Mudgal is able to view the highly complex, nuanced world of North Indian art music, (often referred to as Hindustani music) as both an insider and outsider. The fact that she does not belong to a hereditary family or community of musicians makes her an outsider in a system that was nurtured and nourished by hereditary lineages of musicians. Simultaneously, her sustained and ongoing involvement in the world of Indian music as student, performer, composer, and teacher—spanning almost five decades—grants her the privilege of being an insider.
In her performance, she will present both of these forms and will be accompanied on the tabla by Dr. Aneesh Pradhan, and on the harmonium by Dr. Kedar Naphade, both highly accomplished and renowned artists in their own right.
Dr. Aneesh Pradhan is one of India’s leading tabla players and a disciple of the illustrious tabla maestro Nikhil Ghosh from whom he inherited a rich and varied repertoire of traditional tabla solo compositions from the Delhi, Ajrada, Lucknow, Farrukhabad and Punjab gharanas. A popular performer at most prestigious concerts and festivals in the country, Dr. Pradhan has also traveled widely and performed overseas at major events. He has also recorded prolifically for national and international record labels accompanying a host of vocalists and instrumentalists. His first tabla solo album titled “Tabla: the solo tradition” recorded in concert in 1997 and published in 2004, was followed by “Tabla solo: a continuing tradition”, a studio recording made in 2006.
Dr. Kedar Naphade received preliminary training in Hindustani Classical Music from his grandfather, Shri Dadasaheb Naphade and from Shri Arvind Gajendragadkar. Since the age of 9, he has been a disciple of the late Pt. Tulsidas Borkar, arguably the greatest harmonium player of our times. As such, like his guru Pt. Tulsidas Borkar, Dr. Naphade's music derives inspiration from the character of the traditional hindustani vocal art form, as well as the dexterous harmonium wizardry of Pt. Borkar and his guru P. Madhukar—a genius and pioneer in harmonium performance technique.
