Ajoy and Kaushiki Chakrabarty at Emirates NBD Classics in Dubai

The 9th season of the Emirates NBD Classics will present legends of Hindustani classical music on February 28, March 21 and April 17 at Emirates Theatre in Dubai.

Classical vocalist Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty will kick off the series on February 28 with ‘Raag Se Dhun’. A recipient of four prestigious national awards in India — Padma Shri (2011), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (Delhi, 1999-2000), The Kumar Gandharva Samman (National Award, 1993) and the Best Male Playback Singer (Bengali Film ‘Chhandaneer’, 1990) — he is a cult figure in among all the legendary Indian classical vocalists of today.

Chakrabarty has more than 100 albums to his credit, published from India, US, UK, Holland and Germany that feature pure classical and light classical numbers including thumris, dadras, bhajans and other types of devotional songs.

On March 21, the show ‘Mehfil’ will feature Kaushika Chakrabarty, the daughter of Ajoy Chakrabarty. Groomed at Sangeet Research Academy, she is the recipient of many national and international awards such as the 2005 BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in Asia/Pacific category, and has performed at many national and international festivals and conferences. She has held performances with her husband Parthasarathi Desikan in the US.

Kaushika, who was born in Kolkata, has accompanied her father in his world tours of music performances since the late 1980s and sang her first song at age 7. At age ten, she started learning Indian classical music at the academy of Jnan Prakash Ghosh who was also her father’s guru, later joined ITC Sangeet Research Academy from where she graduated in 2004, and was also groomed by her father.

The April 17 show called ‘Romantic Flute’ will feature Rakesh Chaurasia, an Indian flautist who plays the bansuri, an Indian bamboo flute. He is the nephew of flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and has collaborated with Rupak Kulkarni for the production of Raga Kirwani, with Talvin Singh for Sona Rupa and with Abhijit Pohankar for Tranquillity.

“Since the inception of Emirates NBD Classics in 2012, the shows have charmed packed audiences. Last seven Seasons were marked by more range of performances of maestros from the Western, Arab and Indian classical genres. “We were delighted to have included the Arab classical concerts as a vital segment in previous seasons and are looking forward to host artists representing sharply diverse musical genres in forthcoming Seasons,” said Amit Pateria, the managing director of Repertoire Consulting & Production.

“Our fundamental objective of bringing the best of classical music to Dubai and creating a platform like Emirates NBD Classics was to demonstrate our commitment towards our social responsibility of bringing vintage classical music to contemporary audiences and leaving a legacy for posterity. This objective has only gotten stronger with every season, every concert over the last 9 years, thanks to the overwhelming support and enthusiasm of the fans.”

Tickets to the shows start at Dh100 and are available on www.bookmyshow.com. Doors open at 7.30pm. Show starts 8pm.