Raving about Ravi

"Singing the morning ragas in front of an audience is a unique concept.

Raving about Ravi

"Singing the morning ragas in front of an audience is a unique concept.

Even for us musicians, as we rarely get to perform or practise the morning bandish's as concerts mostly take place in the early evenings or later at night," says sitarist Ravi Chary.

Ravi, who is all set to perform at Pratahswar (6:30am) at Ravindra Natya Mandir on Sunday, talks to CS about his music:

Goan beat
I hail from Goa, which has a great art culture. The land has given the world some great artists in almost all the fields, but there's never been a sitarist from Goa. My dad, tabla maestro Pandit Prabhakar Chary, came across a sitar and bought it for '75 in Goa.
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This was when I was seven years old, and by then, I already knew how to play the tabla and harmonium.
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However, my father taught me how to play the sitar and I knew that I'd found my calling. I've had the opportunity to perform with great artists like Ustad Allah Rakha, Kishori Amonkar, Louiz Banks, Sivamani, Ranjit Barot, Taufiq Quereshi.
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It has been amazing to perform with each of them as every artist has his or her own perspective towards music. And the same goes for foreign artists. I've played with Salif Keita, Kai Eckhart, Angelique Kidjo, Pacco Sairre, Kudsi Eulgner, and Robert Miles.

Many of themu00a0 have done a deep study of Indian music and its basic foundation of taals that it becomes very easy to work with them. And when you take into account the response that you get from audiences abroad, it makes you glad to have invested your life in music.