ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

Between the 3rd and 5th of March 2006, a unique gathering of some of India's greatest musicians took place in Leicester to celebrate the life of Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee, who sadly passed away on 3rd April 2005. A packed audience assembled at the Peepul Centre witnessed three days of exhilarating performances involving over 50 Indian musicians, a fitting tribute to Gurmit Ji's love of life, his musical talent, his spiritual endeavours and his selfless contribution to the music scene. Since the early 1950s, Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee had been playing, promoting and teaching tabla. Respected throughout the Indian classical music circle, he performed with world-class artists and taught hundreds of students, many of whom are now renowned performers and teachers in their own right. Gurmitji developed Taal - Rhythms of India (1987-1996) the world's first dedicated organisation for promoting Tabla. Performances included Zakir Hussain, Swapan Chaudhuri, Anindo Chatterjee, Shankar Ghosh and many others. Tablaonline launched in May 2005 world's first portal percussion website. The 2006 Darbar Festival proved to be a landmark event on the UK Indian Classical Music scene and the largest of its kind in Britain to date.

Learn all about Indian / Hindustani Classical Ragas & the use of Ragas in mainstream Bollywood Hindi Film Songs as well as niche Art Films.

Belonging to the Agra Gwalior Gharana, Arati Ankalikar Tikekar is a recognized Indian Classical singer of the younger generation. Arati studied North Indian Hindustani Classical vocal music with Late Pandit Vasantrao Kulkarni of the Agra Gwalior gharanas, and later with Gana Saraswati Smt Kishori Amonkar of the Jaipur Atrauli gharana.Arati also briefly received guidance from Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar and is continuing her training under Pandit Dinkar Kaikini.

Among her many achievements, Arati Ankalikar Tikekar performed as the playback singer for Hindi Film Songs of the Hindi Movie SARDARI BEGUM which is a critically acclaimed Bollywood Hindi Film by the great director Shyam Benegal.

The WBRi Hindusthani / Indian Classical CD Selection Raga Ahir Bhairavi / Meera Bhajan has the following songs:

• Raga Ahir Bhairav: Vilambit Bandish in Ektal (46:10)
• Raga Ahir Bhairav: Drut Bandish in Tintal (10:43)
• Raga Mand: Mira Bhajan in Dipchandi Tal (11:48)

Purchase the WBRi Selection Recommended CD or the acclained Hindi Movie online from WBRi affiliate CD DVD Blu-Ray Sales store.

Pundit Ajoy Chakraborty is, of course, one of the finest vocalists performing in the genres of Indian Classical & Light Classical Vocal today.

Kala Ramnath is an outstanding instrumentalist - a fantastic Indian Hindusthani Classical Violinist of the Mewati Gharana of North India.

We present two CD selections from the excellent Ragamala (garland of Ragas) collection from Sagarika that all Indian Classical Music aficionados should have in their collections.

Chants of Devi - Hindu Devotional Songs by famous Indian Classical / Hindustani Classical singers. Dedicated to Ma Durga The Holy Mother and her forms of Devi Chandika & Ma Santoshi. The songs in this Hindu Chants / Devotional album available online are:

1. Jagdambike -Devaki Pandit
2. Vigneshwari - Hariharan
3. Jagat Janani - Sanjiv Abhyankar
4. He Dayalu - Hariharan
5. He Bhavani - Ashit & Hema Desai
6. Jai Jai Jag Janani - Pundit Ajay Chakrabarty & Suresh Wadkar
7. Jai Durge - Hariharan
8. Ridhi De Sidhi De - Hema Desai
9. Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu - Devaki Pundit
10. Jagdamba Ki Arti - Hema Desai

This CD is on sale on WBRi Online Affiliate CD Store.

Discover and learn all about the great heritage of one of the oldest musical traditions of human civilization - the South Asian / Indian Classical Music tradition. You can listen free to samples online and download classical songs, music, vocal and instrumental records and CDs from the new web site Shastriya.com. In the meanwhile, we recommend the following selection of books which you may want to buy and read from our online Bookstore.