For those attending Thursday night’s 5:30 asana class, you will be transported into a blissful Savasana accompanied by these master musicians! To be followed by a free concert for all starting at 8:00pm! Thursday night’s class will be open to everyone, all levels may attend (class is $15 with no additional charge for the concert) Join us to experience Pandit Rabindra Goswama and Ramu Pandit, two of the most senior artists in the musically rich city of Banaras, India.
Sitarist Rabindra Goswami has been a professional musician for 40 years and is recognized as a senior artist in his musically rich city of Banaras, India. Unlike many Indian classical musicians who have become well known in the West, Goswami plays pure, traditional raga music. Goswami is a disciple of the late Amiya Devi, and also studied the ancient Dhrupad style with Pandit Ramakant Mishra. Later in life, he studied the advanced intricacies of raga with the great Dr. Balchandra Patekar of Bombay and Banaras. Goswami has won a number of national awards in India, including first place in the Prayag Sangeet Samiti All-India Competition in 1967, and second place at Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy in 1972. He is an “A level” Artist of All India Radio and Television, and has performed throughout India (Delhi, Bombay, Lucknow, Indore, Patna, Allahabad, many others) and the world (Greece, Nepal, Switzerland, United States). Goswami is also one of Banaras’s foremost sitar teachers.
Tablaist Ramu Pandit is a long-time professional performer of classical, semi-classical, folk, and popular music. A life-long disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai, he is a colorful performer and experienced educator who specializes in demonstrating and explaining Indian music to Western audiences. A Master of Music, he has also performed for All India Radio, and played percussion on film soundtracks in Bombay for the legendary composer S.D. Burman. He currently directs the Sarangi Institute of Banaras, an organization that he founded to preserve the sarangi, an instrument with a long pedigree in Indian Classical music but which now has few masters. He is also the former coordinator of the University of Wisconsin College Year in India Program, a position that he held for nearly 30 years.
