Ishita Ayan Dutt
Kolkata’s ITC Sangeet Research Academy
(SRA) will flag off its 25th year celebration which will also be the
occasion to flag off a new process of thinking global. SRA was set up by ITC Ltd in 1978
to foster and support Indian classical music as a public charitable trust, and a ‘gurukul’
to revive the Indian ‘guru-shishya parampara’ at a time when such thinking was
unknown in the country.
SRA executive director Amit Mukherjee said SRA's first
objective today was to propagate appreciation of Indian classical music to the large
diaspora of Indians and non-Indians overseas.
Mukherjee, an exponent of Hindustani classical music, said
the global drive would strengthen the core objectives of the academy as well. The academy
was set up with emphasis on reviving and nurturing the heritage of Hindustani classical
music.
Mukherjee said, the western world's interest in Indian
music was rising and this would be nurtured. SRA would target the universities and music
institutes, to expose them to Indian music, both vocal and instrument.
SRA would consciously make an effort to reach out to the
music institutes and not just concentrate on musical concerts. Concerts would just be a
part of the "thinking global" programme.
According to Mukherjee, the western world was much more
acquainted with our instrumental music rather than vocal. Without aiming at creating a
divide between vocal and instrumental music, SRA would introduce the western cultural
institutes to vocal music.
SRA would take gurus from the academy to perform at the
institutes. There would also be limited performance by scholars, or 'shishyas'. However,
SRA was not in favour of excessive exposure of scholars during their learning period as it
would distract them.
The academy has always had a galaxy of gurus including
legends like the late Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan, the late Vidushi Hirabai Barodekar, the
late Pandit Nivruttibua Sarnaik, the late Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan, the late Ustad
Ishtiaq Hussain Khan, as well as living legends like Vidushi Girija Devi, Pandit T D
Janorikar, the late Yunus Hussain Khan and Pandit Vijay Kichlu.
To take globalisation to its last mile, SRA would also
encourage an exchange of western and Indian music through its scholars. Mukherjee has
already made an offer to some music institutes to send their scholars to SRA and expose to
Hindustani classical music either from the academy's gurus or the recordings available
with the academy.
SRA prides on its exhaustive collection of recordings of
its gurus which cannot be used for commercial purposes, Mukherjee said. While it was not
possible for the academy's scholars to really learn both Indian and western music, the
academy would urge its scholars to expose themselves to western music for a better
understanding of music in all its manifestations worldwide.