One still remembers the full throated voice of Pt. C.R. Vyas, the Padma Bhushan and SNA Awardee. He would also be remembered for his guru bhakti. He was one of the favourite disciples of Pt. Jagannath Bua Purohit, himself a reputed disciple of Ud. Vilayat Hussain Khan of Agra gharana.
Pt. C. R. Vyas established the Maharashtra Lalit Kala Nidhi Trust way back in 1970s to promote and propagate Hindustani classical music. He also started the Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan in memory of his Guru, and his immense contribution to the field of music by way of composing immortal Bandishes and new ragas. The legacy of Gunidas Sammelan is ably carried forward by Pandit C.R.Vyas's son and santoor maestro Pt. Satish Vyas for more than 40 years. Satish Vyas, one of the senior most disciples of Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma used to work in a private bank. His being an MBA came handy in managing the Sammelan professionally on a large scale.
Sharing his memories, Satish discloses “The most important task for any music festival to be successful is to get financial assistance and I was able to raise the required funds each year by collecting small donations from corporates. Over the last 40 years, legendary artistes have performed in Gunidas Sammelan.
“It has been a great learning and enriching experience for me to be involved in organising Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan since its inception in 1977. We used to have five days of Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan and each day it used to start with a young up and coming artiste followed by an established artiste and used to conclude with a legendary artiste.”
In Mumbai, he informs, the festival has completed 41 years. “We had to stop holding Gunidas Sammelan in Delhi and other metros due to the paucity of funds. Apart from holding Gunidas Sammelan, our Trust has also organised programs in smaller towns like Nagpur, Kolhapur, Belgaum, Sawantwadi and can take pride in saying that MLKN has introduced a number of young and unsung artists.
Satish concludes by thanking his own Guru, “The consistent support of all the legendary artistes made Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan a great success, but I would like to especially mention the immense contribution of my revered Guru Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma for Sammelan’s success for so many years, for which I will ever remain grateful to him.”
The Maharashtra Lalit Kala Nidhi, Mumbai is presenting ‘Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan’ this evening at the Kamani auditorium, featuring Pt. Satish Vyas in a santoor recital and Begum Parveen Sultana with her alluring vocal recital.
