Q. In today’s age, when the audience is always rushing and concerts include several artistes, how does ‘one evening one maestro’ work?
A. Earlier, there was a tradition of Indian Classical music, where an artist performed for four to five hours. We have seen artistes like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Hari prasad Chaurasia play all night at baithaks. Today, lifestyles have changed. Organisers are under a lot of pressure. They want to present shows like entertainers. Somewhere in their mind they are competing with Bollywood, which is not good. This is different from Bollywood. It is a sophisticated art and has its own set of followers. Too many artistes coming together on one stage, at times, makes me feel like it’s a product. For me, this is an ancient, spiritual form. When Banyan Tree told me about this concept of a concert with one musician on one evening, I loved the idea. I told them that I fully support it. I am eagerly looking forward to it. I have done all-night programmes too, long ago, when there were no police restrictions. There have been a lot of solo concerts in other cities like Kolkata too. In Mumbai, I will be doing this after a very long time. There are people who miss these kinds of programmes. People who like wholesome music without gimmicks will enjoy it.

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma plays the santoor at a concert