Rikhi Ram's Blog

When talked about famous and popular sitar player/performers from India, one name is always knocking top. He is none other but, the youth icon and sitar virtuoso "Niladari Kumar". He with his musical vision and knowledge, has brought new dimension to our Hindustani Music culture. Actually had written new chapter all together by having created Zitar-electrified flat wooden sitar. One of most versatile Indian artist/musician I have ever witnessed. He gave yet another opportunity for people of Delhi by perform for prestigious Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan on 20th Feb 2010. He as usual mesmerized audience with scintillating rendition of notes, precise control over raaga. Surely a treat to watch. Today, he was scheduled to visit me at Rikhi Ram Music, Gole Market for his sitar setup- jawari work and tuning. His choice of jawari tone is completely different, and is asolutely perfect to his style of playing. Actually, he puts more emphasis on purety, clarity and control of notes, which puts him to the top of most talented Indian musicians. Amazing indeed. After jawari work, he played one of his father composition in raag bhairavi in dadra. Clip will be shortly put up on this website home page. "Niladari Kumar...Prince of Sitar" is what he is. Will be waiting for his upcoming major shows in Delhi soon. Cheers everybody till then.

Hello everybody. Rikhi Ram Music, Gole Market connects with Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 video guide to shop for Indian and Western Musical Instruments of all quality under one roof. Linked at http://commonwealthdelhi2010.com/videoguide/shopping/sitar-shop Carrying forward the deep nailed tradition of Musical Instruments making of three generation in a row, Rikhi Ram Music provides with quality, precision and sublime sound from their specialized art form, allows musicians to develop new forms in their playing techniques and lifts their performance level to new heights. Quality work is just not confined to great maestros, even for a beginner or inspired musician to fusion/world music professional, but assured standard to everybody. Delivering best of knowledge with updated researched techniques, Rikhi Ram Music would just make to order specifications with 100% plus musicians/customer satisfaction. Here are few comments from world musicians; Mark Brenner, France Hi Sanjay! Whenever I'm in England I visit my teacher Jonathan Mayer for some extra sitar tuition. I was there last week and took the studio sitar you made for me... Jonathan was very impressed with it. I really do have 2 of the best sitars around and I'm so grateful to you for making them! Love from France Bill Hill, USA Hello, Sanjay. I just finished playing, and wanted to write again and thank you for making my incredible Sanjay Sharma Vilayat Khan style teak sitar. It has such beautiful tone and sustain. The sympathetic notes are hard to believe - so clear, sharp and beautiful that sometimes they make you gasp, or laugh, or cry. Before I played, I was listening to Budhaditya Mukherjee playing Mishra Kafi with a lot of meend notes. It inspired me to try new things, and your sitar sounded just amazing when bending the notes all the way to the edge of the frets. Bill Hill, USA Yes, the teak surbahar you made for me is also beautiful. The more I play it, the better it sounds, like it's "playing in". It's amazing how the two lower strings (which of course are really low!) will generate high harmonic sympathetic notes after vibrating for about 15-20 seconds or more. You learn a technique of playing long, slow notes, hitting the note and waiting... These are the notes I love best - the unstruck ones. Many more are as happy as they are. It is just not the money you pay to buy Musical Instruments at Rikhi Ram Music, it is value for money and everyday pleasure with heart touching sweet tone harmonics-overtones, one hear from these Musical Instruments when played, signifies the importance of using well aged seasoned wood to make this magical experience true. In turn, one does not stop playing/practicing. Now that, Delhi will be hosting this world event of Commonwealth Games 2010, Rikhi Ram Music is committed to provide coming participants/visitors/delegates for these games with their best of best highest standard Musical Instruments with no comparison. With best wishes again to all valued visitors of www.rikhiram.in.

WOW!! Just returned from fabulous show of Indian Classical music by "god father of world music" maestro Pt Ravi Shankar, assisted by his talented daughter Anoushka Shankar on sitar and famous percussionist Bickram Ghosh on tablas. I kept maestros sitar in tune on stage and did tanpura accompaniment.

Yet another opportunity for music lovers to hear Maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar perform on 5th Dec 2009 at Nehru Park, New Delhi, assisted on sitar by his talented daughter Anoushka Shankar. Maestro will start his Indian concert tour from this show and later performs on 19th Dec 2009 show in Mumbai. Maestro's Studio Sitar has just been fixed(jawari work & tuning)for this show after I had worked on it last, this Oct in Encinitas, CA, USA. Maestro would like me to help him on stage for tuning &handling his sitar. I will also accompany Shankars on tanpura. I'm writing this a day before this concert. Will surely put details and reviews soon after the show.

It was a pleasant home visit by the maestro for quick jawari work on his Mohan Veena, to prepare his instrument for the concert same evening. He also blessed me and my wife by joining us for lunch. We had many discussions on music and setting new standards for innovative musical instruments. What a genies musician personality he is!!!!

Delhi was blessed again to have sitarist Smt. Manju Mehta ji perform at Indian Habitat Centre for Sa Ma Pa music festival, performances by Doyens of Classical Music on 8th Sep 2009. First, I had set her sitar same morning to play perfect for the show and later made a trip to hear her perform at the venue. Sitar sound was great, but her playing techniques and gharana purity to treat raga was commendable. I was spell bound by her mastery touch over this instrument. Supported on tablas was none other Shubh(grandson of late tabla maestro & legend Pt Kishan Maharaj). I have been handed over a project to make even better sounding sitar as ordered by this musical genius.

What a site to see when Pt Sarthi Chatterjee(vocalist), Pt Tanmoy Bose(tabla maestro), Sanjeev Shankar(shehnai player) were all at our store to get their new musical instruments order set up. Sarthi ji and Tanmoy da, had grown up together in Kolkata during their musical grooming, was something I did not know of them. We all are good time buddies and have fun when all at one place. Will be putting up pictures, where Tanmoy da is wearing Rikhi Ram's Music newly launched "T-shirt". Lots were talked about new designing of tablas, travel cases, Tanpuras, shehnai, Khanjeeras, new materials for jawaris on sitar, tanpura and so on. These meeting are important for innovation and developments. This is how new trends are set and Rikhi Ram's name grown generation to generations.

Here was a small check up of Studio Sitar made recently for Sunil Kant Saxena sitarist and myself accompanying him on tabla. This sitar is without attachments of mics etc. Check the sound on this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diU7ooqz8hU

Famous Jai Uttal's pleasant surprise visit for harmonium today was some special moment that I like to share.

He has been around Indian music for several years, and have deep knowledge about Indian Music and musical nuances equally, as good as our known Indian Musician.

Right from the Beatles to Anoushka Shankar, everyone knows them. SDP gets up-close with Sanjay & Manjul Sharma, the third generation of illustrious Rikhi Ram family of musical instruments makers from Green Park.

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