Santoor loses her comrade, Pt. Bhajan Sopori no more
Image | IANS
Image | IANS
Srinagar/New Delhi | Santoor player, Pt. Bhajan Sopori (73) passed on Thursday in Gurugram after a prolonged illness. He was diagnosed with Colon Cancer last June.
Recipient of the Padma Shri, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Jammu and Kashmir State Lifetime Achievement Award, Sopori who hailed from Sopore in Kashmir belonged to the Sufiana gharana. His family had played the santoor for over six generations and the late master gave his first public performance at the age of 10.
Learning Western classical music at Washington State University, where he also taught music for several years, the late musician had a double master’s degree in Indian classical music specialising both in sitar and santoor.
Contributing immensely to improvising the santoor by adding more bridges and strings to the instrument, he also modified the tonal quality of the instrument.
His son, Abhay Rustum Sopori, himself an accomplished santoor player and recipient of the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar and J&K State Award has performed across the world. Having also learned Western Classical, he is the youngest visiting faculty at the University of Massachusetts and has been the only contemporary Indian composer, whose Haftrang, as a tribute to Kashmir, has been conducted by maestro Zubin Mehta.
On his father’s demise, Abhay said, “He was 73, and would have celebrated his 74th birthday on June 22. We lost a really great musician, a great human being and a great father. It’s really hard for me to believe this and imagine my life without him.”
IANS
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