Album Notes

From a musical atmosphere tempered by the traditional spirituality of the ages Chandrakant Sardeshmukh emerged performing his first concert at the age of six and people came from all over India to listen to him in Pune. Listening to his reputation of a young performer of 8 years of age, Pt.Ravi Shankar came to Pune. When Pt. Ravi Shankar listened him playing Sitar in a specially organized concert, he took Chandrakant as his disciple on that very day. And his overwhelming feelings of these days are evident from his letter written on that day. Dr.Chandrakant has performed in India as well as Germany, Australia, America, and Japan

It was during time studying the sitar under maestro Ravi Shankar that he became aware of Japan and the depth and beauty of its culture, ancient history, music and arts. Eventually, after touring India and abroad he traveled to Japan in 1991. Performing nationwide since then he has embarked on composing new musical works combining sitar with traditional Japanese instruments. At the Okinawa International Music Festival he appeared with a dancer accompanied by taiko and Western drums. In Chiryu and Tokyo in 2000 he performed sitar duets with shakuhachi, shamisen, koto, jushichigen and taiko. In 2006 he presented an enthusiastically received concert series in Tokyo , one for sitar and Indian percussion with tsugaru shamisen and the other with koto. Along with many other concerts in cities such as Nagoya , Kyoto and Nara he has presented concerts and educational programs for Japanese school children to give them some idea of the richness of India 's culture including its dance and drama.

Presently residing in Tokyo , he travels the world extensively performing concerts, teaching and conducting therapeutic music programs. For Dr. Chandrakant, the music he loves, that began centuries ago in pure worship, still has connotations as being sacred, free and joyous. To offer people in Japan something of these qualities and to pass on his knowledge of Indian traditional music to the new generation is one of his foremost wishes.