A musical entry into the New Year

On Sunday morning, Indian classical vocalist Shounak Abhisheki performed to a packed audience at the city’s Vidyaranya High School paying tribute to his late father Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, a Hindustani classical music legend. Shounak’s last performance in the city was about five years ago at a music fest titled Barkha Ritu Aayi. But, his association with Hyderabad goes beyond music. His nana (maternal grandfather) Chandrakant Godse was the home secretary in the Nizam’s state and later served as a High Court Judge here. \

His mother grew up in Hyderabad and she still speaks in Telugu with Shounak, his wife Rashmi and eight-year-old son, Abhed, in their Pune home.Shounak’s Hyderabad connection will be further strengthened by November 2015 with a music fest in his father’s honour.“I’ve been coming to Hyderabad since my childhood, accompanying my father for his concerts. I remember staying back at Malini Rajurkar’s (a noted Hindustani classical singer) home,” he recollects.

When asked about special plans to usher in the New Year, he says, “We consider Gudi Padwa as our New Year, not January 1. Still, my father’s students and I get together at my home on December 31. We play music from 6 pm till 12 am, with a  belief that by ushering in the year with music we’ll sing through the year. We’ve been doing this for 10 years, it has become a tradition.”Next year, Shounak is certainly looking for more “fusion performances”.

He feels that it is the way forward for Indian classical music. “I like these experiments of fusing different streams of music. If Indian music has to travel the world over, it needs to involve local listeners, especially youngsters,” says Shounak who, with a taste for Western classical, rock music and film music has performed all over the world and even collaborated with American and African artistes. Shounak hails from a family that has music in their veins and boasts of greats such as Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle who are his father’s cousin’s sisters.