The Talwalkar family! When we talk about Talwalkars its all about Health & fitness – the famous gymnasium in Mumbai. No, I am not talking about those Talwalkars. Its about the musicians, one of the greatest musician family of recent times. Pt. Suresh Talwalkar, the Taal Yogi, is one of the eminent Tabla player of present times. He is a very versatile musician and a great human being. Pt. Suresh Talwalkar learnt tabla from Pt. Pandharinath Nageshkar & Pt. Vinayakrao Ghangrekar. He also learnt the carnatic layashastra (rythmic form) from Mrudungam player Pt. Ramnad Iswaran. Pt. Suresh Talwalkar is a very composed solo tabla player. He also understands the ‘Sur’ very well and is a very accomplished player when it comes to accomapaniment. His wife, Padma Talwalkar is a renowned hindustani vocalist and has acquired training from three gharanas – Gwalior, Jaipur & Kirana. She got initial training in hindustani music from Pt. Gangadhar Pimpalkhare. Thereafter, she got training from Moghubai Kurdikar, an eminent artist from the Jaipur Gharana. She also received training from Moghubai’s daughter, Kishori Amonkar who is one of the most versatile vocalist of Jaipur Gharana. Later she also learned music from Pt. Gajananrao Joshi, a master vocalist belonging to the Agra, Gwalior & Jaipur Gharana. Padma Talwalkar is a talented singer with a very profound voice. Their son Satyajit & daughter Savni Talwalkar have also developed interest in playing tabla at a very early age. Satyajit has been performing as a Solo artist and also acompanies his mother for her concerts. The entire family has dedicated their life to music and both Sureshji and Padmatai have a big Shishya parivar (family of students).  Ofcourse, they also have a huge fan following across the world. I have been fortunate to have learned tabla lessons form Pt. Sureshji for about 2 years and observed their family very closely. They have been very successful in leading both the personal and professional life.  I wish them great success and happiness in their future life. For more details on Pt. Suresh Talwalkar, log on to www.sureshtalwalkar.com

Recently we oragnised a concert of classical music through my foundation Swar Sadhana (www.swarsadhana.com). We had two performers, a samvadini player – Rajendra Vaishampayan and a tabla player – Prafulla Athlye.  This time we wanted to entertain the crowd of IIT Bombay with a different concept - a jugalbandi of Samvadini & Tabla. The programme started with solo performance by Prafulla on Tabla with Taal Teen Taal while Rajendra was accompaning him by playing the lehera (16 beats tune). Prafulla, a disciple of Ustad Alla Rakha, played magnificently on the tabla with his graceful fingers. He played peshkar, kaydas, rellas & gats and some creations of Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Thirukva & Pt. Sapan Chowdhary with elegance. The next session was controlled by the Samvadini Artist, Rajendra Vaishampayan, a disciple of Pt. Manohar Chimote. Rajendra actually started communicating with the audience through the instrument by playing the Raag Kirvani. Kirvani is a beautiful & most romantic Raag. Most old hindi songs are based on this raag. Samvadini is an improvised version of the harmonium (Indian Keyboards). Usually, Harmonium is an instrument played for accompaniment.  But Samvadini has really brought a positive change in the instrument and its sound. If you close your eyes and listen to the notes you will feel as if its trying to say something. It also depends on the Artist how he plays the instrument and expresses the emotions via the instrument. Rajendra is an exceptional performer and he plays the samvadini with great confidence and ease. He also played a bandish & ended the concert with a dhun in Bhairavi. Rajendra has a great future ahead and I wish him all the success for his future concerts. For more details on Samvadini visit Rajendra’s site: www.samvadiniartiste.com.