Dialogues with Ustad Vilayat Khan – archival recordings

During 1976 to 1979, Pt. Arvind Parikh became instrumental in engaging with his guru, the legendary sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan, in a series of meaningful dialogues. The Maestro visited the NCPA studio several times, and the ensuing discussions were audio-recorded for NCPA’s archives. These old recordings, spread over 30 hours, though analog have astonishing clarity.

Khansaheb spoke at length, tracing in detail the history of six generations of his gharana. He elaborated on the individual style and contribution made by his predecessors. The maestro also chronicled his own musical journey with several demonstrations of research oriented thought on content, techniques, and performance.

Public listening sessions:

During 2019-20, Pt. Arvind Parikh reviewed these recordings and curated sessions of two hours on each subject, to be presented as guided listening sessions for the public at the NCPA, as well as across other Indian cities under the auspices of the NCPA. Besides the spoken word and musical illustrations, each of the 6 listening sessions held so far also included an added element of recorded performance of Ustad Vilayat Khan.

The series was inaugurated by the legendary tabla maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain, along with Ustad Sujaat Khan, the illustrious sitarist son of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Renowned musicians Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar and Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty and Ustad Sujaat Khan also introduced and presented the individual successive listening sessions.

Meet the Maestro series

Over a span of 75 years and more, Pt. Arvind Parikh has witnessed the successful rise of many stalwarts in the field of Indian classical music. During 2014-18, NCPA invited him to conduct five episodes of ‘Meet the Maestro’ series featuring iconic artistes like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Ram Narayan, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

In these inspirational talks, the maestros reminisced about their individual musical journeys, lineage, training, struggles, careers and musical artistry.

Pt. Parikh engaged with each of these maestros in a dialogue to bring to the fore their thought process, ideas, and vision that go into the making of a maestro.