In a unique musical extravaganza spanning three generations, violinist N. Rajam, her daughter and granddaughters will come together for a special rendition at the 64th annual Dover Lane music conference beginning on January 22.
Rajam's daughter Sangeeta Shankar, granddaughters Ragini and Nandini Shankar will perform as a violin quartet at the four-day music conference at Nazrul Mancha in south Kolkata. The veteran violinist will be honoured with the 'Sangeet Samman Award 2016'.
"When you listen to one such concert, it will look as if the raga is being expanded by one artist, although four artists are playing. It will not be noise. It will be as if one artist is elaborating the raga," Rajam, whose family has a music legacy of seven generations, told the media here on Saturday.
Rajam is an exponent of Hindustani Classical music. With 12 violinists in the family, including her brother Padma Bhushan T. N. Krishnan (of Carnatic style), the tradition is to hand over the musical instrument to the next generation at the age of three.
The conference also features Pandit Shivkumar Sharma on the santoor, Amjad Ali Khan and Amaan Ali Khan on the sarod, among other heavyweights in night-long concerts.
In a mix and match of veterans and next generation artists, the line-up includes Shoukat Hussain Khan (vocals), Anupama Bhagwat (sitar) and Mukul Shivputra (son of eminent vocalist Kumar Gandharva).
Lamenting the dearth of constructive criticism of artists in the media nowadays, Rajam requested the media to go for such criticism so that the insights help young artists to improve.
