My Favourite Musician

My favourite musician is Hariprasad Chaurasia. He is an Indian music director and classical flautist, in the Hindustani classical tradition who plays the bansuri. 

He was born on 1st of July in 1938 at  Allahabad in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. At the age of 15 Chaurasia started learning vocal music from his neighbour, Rajaram. Later, he switched to playing the flute under the tutelage of Bholanath Prasanna of Varanasi for eight years. In 1957 he joined the All India Radio, Cuttack, Odisha  and worked as a composer and performer.

Apart from classical music, he has  composed music for many popular movies, including Silsila and Chandni, and created some highly popular songs by collaborating with Shivkumar Sharma, forming a group called Shiv-Hari. Chaurasia also collaborated with Bhubaneswar Mishra, forming the pair "Bhuban-Hari" (in line with Shiv-Hari), and the pair composed music for many Odia movies, creating numerous songs that were hugely popular in the state.

In 2013, the musician's son Rajeev Chaurasia directed a documentary film "Bansuri Guru" features the life and legacy of Chaurasia produced by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Also, Chaurasia's nephew and pupil Rakesh Chaurasia is a highly accomplished flautist now, and has been performing globally with such eminent maestros as Ustad Zakir Hussain carrying forward the family legacy.

The government of India has honoured him with awarding Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2000) to value his dedication towards the Indian Music field.

Thank you very much.....

Blog by :- Hasindu Withanage

(Mu/21/015) 

(Undergraduate at University of the visual and Performing Arts) 

(Faculty of Music)