Exchanging Notes

Two of the youngest artistes from the famous Maihar gharana, which has produced ace artistes such as Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Annapurna Devi and Pandit Ravi Shankar, the two are still in their early 20s and fledgling talents, going by their very basic skills on the two difficult instruments, but have come up in the current classical music scene with performances at important festivals of the country. They have trained under Pandit Balwant Rai Verma, Sharan Rani and Pandit Umashankar Mishra. These days, they are learning under Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. “We’ve been devoted to music and have trained since a very young age. Hindustani classical music is such that it allows room for composition and innovation, which is why we wanted to do this particular collaboration,” says Ayush. The two have composed two pieces, which will be presented in Delhi. For Philips’ parts, Lakshya and Ayush have taken music inspired from Bach’s concertos, who wrote a lot of music for the cello. The third composition will be a folk tune by Phillips and the duo will improvise on it with their classical notes.

Phillips, who has been learning Hindustani classical music for almost two decades, is excited to bring the idea of oral legacy and written harmonies together. “For me, to love both western and eastern music is one thing, but to combine them can be risky. I hope my love of eastern and western music will save me,” says Phillips, who had recorded an album titled Raga & Raj (East Meets West Music) in 2013, which was heard and approved by Shankar a few months before he passed away.