The counterculture movement of the 1960s, which was also the decade of experimentation in popular music, meant that Hindustani classical music was reaching beyond Indian shores, and western musicians were turning towards India for inspiration. It was in this state of cultural flux that Australian artiste Jonathan Barlow had his first tryst with Hindustani music in a Sydney restaurant that left a life-changing impact on him. India has been his home for several decades now.
Goa-based Barlow will be in town to anchor a conversation on the evolving range of expression of the sarod and its utilisation by various streams of thought within the tradition, which will be the start to an evening of intergenerational sarod recitals, titled Legacy. Organised by First Edition Arts in association with G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture, the recital brings together two gurus — Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan of the Lucknow Shahjahanpur gharana and Pandit Shekhar Borkar of the Maihar gharana — and two younger musicians Arnab Chakrabarty and Abhishek Borkar.

Edited excerpts from an interview: