Sitar maestro Kartik Seshadri, USA, to perform
Sitar virtuoso Kartik Seshadri, based in the USA is to have his concerts in Chennai for the Kartik Fine Arts on December 24 at the Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan. He will be accompanied by the famous Bikram Ghosh on tabla.
Kartik is internationally acclaimed as one of India's outstanding musicians and the foremost disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Kartik was hailed as a child prodigy by critics and prominent musicians when he began performing full-length solo recitals at the age of six. His initial training in music began with Shankar Rao of All India Radio. As a young genius, Kartik had an illustrious performing career, and in 1965 he met the world renowned maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was already a profound musical influence in his life. Kartik became a disciple of the maestro in 1974 and has since been receiving talim (knowledge) steeped in the distinctive and pure styles of thesenia, beenkar and dhrupad traditions.
His concerts in India frequently include prestigious festivals such as the Sangeeth Nataka Academy, Madras Music Academy, Gunidas Sangeeth Sammelan, Indian Fine Arts Society, Saptak, and Sangeeth Research Academy (SRA) Music Festival, establishing him as a musician of national importance. In the United States and Canada, Kartik's recent solo engagements have included the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, World Music Institute, Asia Society, Vancouver Jazz Festival and Ravi Shankar's 75th birthday celebrations. Kartik has had the added honor of accompanying Pandit Ravi Shankar in major concert halls through-out the world: India, Europe, Middle East, Japan, Mexico and the United States, including Carnegie Hall.
Kartik is also a distinguished composer and educator of Indian music. His composition Quartet for a Raga received its world premiere in Washington, DC under the auspices of the Contemporary Music Forum. He also serves on the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, where he heads one of the largest programs of Indian classical music in the country.
