Devotional Music of India: Songs of the Saint-Poets
sung by
Dr. Krishnakant Shukla
on tour from Varanasi, India
Wednesday, November 17, 07:15 p.m.
Venue: Building 420, room 50 (lower level) , Stanford University
Further info: lionda@stanford.edu
Free & Open to the Public
KRISHNAKANT SHUKLA While teaching Physics and Astronomy as an assistant professor in upstate New York, Dr. Shukla decided to quit academics and follow his heart and soul deep into the fathomless waters of Indian Classical Music. Having studied with great maestros like Srimati Laxmi Shankar, Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan, and Dr. Tapan Bhattacharya, he returned to India in 1994 to explore the roots of Indian Classical Music in the great living oral folk traditions. His musical search led him into remote villages in the Himalayan foothills, as well as far flung and difficult to reach dwellings in the central plains. He has been particularly influenced by the songs of Kabir, Gorakhnath, and other nirguna bhakti poet-saints—songs that have been sung as part of a living oral tradition that is over six hundred years old.
Dr. Shukla’s repertoire includes compositions of Tyagaraja, Tulsidas, Surdas, Meera, Tukaram, Purandardas and other poet-saints of India, as well as the musical compositions of Sufi saints. He has also been researching, recording and performing the folk songs of rural northern India, which, according to him, is an art form of unparalleled beauty which is fast becoming extinct.
Dr. Shukla has performed widely in India and is currently touring the U.S. He has been recognized as a singer of devotional music by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an agency of the central government that supports artists to represent India culture abroad. More details are there on the website www.krishnakantshukla.org
This program is presented in association with Religious Studies 159, “Music & Religion in South Asia.”
Sir , you are truly genious and your thoughts will act as guide for all of us throughout our life . I am deeply impressed by your subject matter particularly Saint musics and spiritual ecology . It was life time expirience for me to watch you live on DD TV interview on 12 july 2011 . I wish you all the very best in your journey of intrinsic Life .
with warm regards ,
—-Shashank Patil