Events & Calendars North Indian Classical Music Concert

Two of North India’s best-known classical musicians will be offering a free concert at Amherst College. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear traditional North Indian classical music performed by two of its finest exponents.

The Artists:

Sitarist Rabindra Goswami has been a professional musician for nearly 50 years and is recognized as a senior artist in his musically rich city of Banaras, India. Unlike many Indian classical musicians who have become well-known in the West, Goswami plays pure, traditional raga music. Goswami is a disciple of the late Amiya Devi, and also studied the ancient Dhrupad style with Pandit Ramakant Mishra. Later in life, he studied the advanced intricacies of raga with Dr. Balchandra Patekar. Goswami has won a number of national awards in India, including first place in the Prayag Sangeet Samiti All-India Competition in 1967, and second place at Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy in 1972. He is an "A-level" Artist of All India Radio and Television, and has performed throughout India (Delhi, Bombay, Lucknow, Indore, Patna, Allahabad, many others) and the world (Greece, Nepal, Switzerland, United States). He was a fellow at Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music in 2014, researching Christian ragas.

Tablaist Ramu Pandit is a longtime professional performer of classical, semi-classical, folk and popular music. A lifelong disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai, he is a colorful performer and experienced educator who specializes in demonstrating and explaining Indian music to Western audiences. A Master of Music, he has also performed for All India Radio, and played percussion on film soundtracks in Bombay for the legendary composer S.D. Burman. He currently directs the Sarangi Institute of Banaras, an organization that he founded to preserve the sarangi, an instrument with a long pedigree in Indian Classical music but that now has few masters. He is also the former coordinator of the University of Wisconsin College Year in India Program, a position that he held for nearly 30 years.

Sponsored by Smith College’s South Asia Concentration, Religion Department, Music Department, Lecture Committee, Ada Howe Kent Fund, and EKTA; Mount Holyoke College’s Department of Asian Studies; Amherst College’s Religion Department; University of Massachusetts Asian Arts & Culture Program; Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program; and the Five College Lecture Fund