Riverside Ragas: Baluji Shrivastav OBE

Baluji Shrivastav OBE is an Indian multi-instrumentalist and one of the world’s leading composers and sitar players. He has performed and recorded with some of the greatest tabla accompanists such as Anindo Chatterji and Ustad Fayaz Khan. He has worked with a wide variety of artists including Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Massive Attack. His compositions feature in a wide spectrum of films, theatre and television. The documentary film ‘Baluji’ about his life and work was directed by Marie-Cecile Embleton and has been screened at the New York Film Festival & the Auroville Film Festival in India.
 
Baluji and his wife, musician and writer Linda Shanson, established the Baluji Music Foundation in 2008 to increase opportunities for blind and visually impaired people. They founded the Inner Vision Orchestra of professional blind and visually impaired musicians in 2012. Baluji has been blind since the age of 8 months. Baluji was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours List for services to music and in 2016 was given the GG2 Award for Overcoming Adversity. In 2017, Times Group India awarded him the accolade of Non-Resident Indian of the Year for Art and Culture. In 2019 Baluji received the prestigious Hind Rattan Award-Jewel of India from the Indian Government.
 
Shahbaz Hussain is one of Europe’s finest tabla players. First studying under his father, the vocalist Ustad Mumtaz Hussain, he went on to learn from various gurus - the Delhi gharana’s Ustad Faiyaz Khan, and the Punjab gharana’s Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan and Ustad Allah Rakha. He has developed an eclectic and versatile style, leading the fusion group Indus as well as accompanying touring classical artists. He has received numerous accolades for his captivating performances, including receiving the prestigious “Son of Lahore” Award from the Government of Pakistan in 2008

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