In 2002 when tabla maestro Zakir Hussain inaugurated the Sanjog Bansuri Mahavidyalay in Bengaluru, he said the learning centre would be the go to space for people learning the art of wielding the bamboo reed. “Venkatesh Godkhindi has the felicity and deft handedness to take the school across to propagate the Godkindi stylisations for posterity,” Zakir had said.
Venkatesh Godkhindi, father of flautist Pravin and tabla player Kiran, has run the school with passion, training several hundreds of students. “Venkatesh Godkhindi left the world a year ago, but to us, he is alive in all the flutes that he has left behind at home,” says Pravin. “Today’s programme at JSS Auditorium is a tribute to this legend. We have a whole day of programmes in two sessions remembering my father.”
Apart from students from the Sanjog school taking part, popular percussionist Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma will take the first session to explain the art and aesthetics of taking across layakari. “Anoor is my second guru after my father one has to learnt the art of weaving in melody into the arithmetics of laya from an expert like him,” says Pravin.
A special pallavi composed by Anoor will be presented by vocalist Varijashri and three percussionists. Other highlights include a session by Pravin and his son Shadaj on flute accompanied by the father and son duo of Ravindra Yavagal and Kiran Yavagal on tabla.
There will be a santoor and sitar jugalbandi by Ashwin Walawalkar and Sanjiv Korti of North Karnataka and a tabla solo by Kiran Godkindi. At 5 pm Udayashankar of Chennai will play and demonstrate his new four foot high instrument, a combination of flute and chitra veena, which he has worked on for over a decade. “One has to blow on it for sound but slide your fingers to play on it like a veena,” says Pravin.
