1. RAVI SHANKAR Ravi Shankar (7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012), often referred to by the title Pandit, was an Indian musician and composer who played thesitar, a plucked string instrument. He has been described as the best-known contemporary Indian musician. He spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and rock artist George Harrison of the Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continued to perform in the 2000s, sometimes with his younger daughter, Anoushka. Career Shankar developed a style distinct from that of his contemporaries and incorporated influences from rhythm practices of Carnatic music. His performances begin with solo alap, jor, and jhala (introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with the prevalent khyal style. Shankar's parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, and touring the West had become difficult due to political conflicts that would lead to World War II. Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khan's pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system. Khan was a rigorous teacher and Shankar had training on sitar and surbahar, learned ragas and the musical stylesdhrupad, dhamar, and khyal, and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena, rubab, and sursingar. 2. Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi February 4, 1922 – January 24, 2011) was an Indian vocalist in the Hindustani classical tradition. A member of the Kirana Gharana (school), he is renowned for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music (bhajans and abhangs). He was the most recent recipient of the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, awarded in 2008. Joshi was born into a Marathi Brahmin family in the town of Ron (now in Gadag district), which was then in Dharwar District in the Bombay Presidency, now the northern part of Karnataka state in India His father, Gururaj Joshi, was a school teacher. Bhimsen was the eldest in a family of 16 siblings. Some of the siblings still live in their ancestral home in Gadag. Bhimsen lost his mother when he was young, and his step mother then raised him. Joshi got his first basic foundation in music from Chinnappa, a local musician who was a family washerman in profession. Bhimsen's guru Sawai Gandharva was the chief disciple of Abdul Karim Khan, who along with his cousin Abdul Wahid Khan was the founder of the Kirana Gharana school of Hindustani music.Joshi heard a recording of Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain" in Raga Jhinjhoti when he was a child, which inspired him to become a musician. Career Joshi first performed live in 1941 at the age 19. His debut album containing a few devotional songs in Marathi, Kannada and Hindi. Later Joshi moved to Mumbai in 1943 and worked as a radio artist. His performance at a concert in 1946 to celebrate his guru Sawai Gandharva's 60th birthday won him accolades both from the audience and his guru. Hindustani classical music Bhimsen Joshi's music was hailed by both the critics and the masses. His music often injected surprising and sudden turns of phrase, for example through the unexpected use of boltaans. Playback singing Joshi sang for several films, including Basant Bahar (1956) with Manna Dey, Birbal My Brother (1973) with Pandit Jasraj, and Kannada films like Sandhya Raaga and Nodi Swami Naavu Irodhu Heege. 3. Pandit Devabra Chaudhuri Pandit Devabrata Chaudhuri is a Sitarist and a teacher. He is the winner of the Padmabhushan and Padmashree awards. He is the writer of three books, composer of eight newraga‟s and numerous musical compositions. From 1963 he has appeared in numerous radio broadcasts, and he is a disciple of Mushtaq Ali Khan. He is considered a leading Sitarist of Post War era. He is regarded as one of the leading proponents of Senia Style.He is the former Dean and Head, Faculty of Music, University of Delhi. His music is noted for its sweet sinking ringing tone. He currently stays with his son, daughter-in law and niece at Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi Pt. Chaudhuri was born in 1935 in Mymensing (now in Bangladesh).He started playing the Sitar from four years of age. His first broadcast was at the age of twelve at the All India Radio in 1953. He received his education in the University of Calcutta. He joined Delhi University as a reader from 1971 to 1982 and was the Dean and Head of Music Department from 1985 to 1988. He has served as a visiting professor at the MIU, Iowa from 1991 to 1994. He received his training in Sitar under late Panchu Gopal Ratna and Ushtad Mustaq Ali Khan Music He started paying the Sitar from four years of age. His first broadcast was at the age of twelve at the All India Radio in 1953.He created 8 new Ragas viz. Bisweswari, Palas-Sarang, Anuranjani, Ashiqui Lalit, Swanandeswari, Kalyani Bilawal, Shivamanjari and Prabhati Manjari. He has authored three books on Indian Music namely „Sitar and its Techniques‟, „Music of India‟ and „On Indian Music‟. He has recorded 24 CD‟s for 24 hours of the day in USA. Style He is considered a leading proponent of playing the repeated articulation of the pedal tone with the tonic pitch of the second string, by pulling the string across the fret that is allowed to die out before the basic alternation stroking is continued. He is also unique in using the 17 fret sitar while most musicians use the 19 fret sitar. Contributions In April 2010 he started the UMAK (Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan) Center for culture in memory of his „‟guru‟‟ Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan. 4.Ali Akbar Khan Ali Akbar Khan(14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009), often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad (master), was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer (often in conjunction with Sitarmaestro Ravi Shankar), and as a teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967.Khan also composed several classical ragas and film scores. Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California.Khan was nominated for five Grammy Awards and was accorded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989.He has also won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship. Career Ali Akbar Khan, after years of rigorous training gave his debut performance at a music conference in Allahabad in 1936, at the age of 13. Three years later, in December 1939, he accompanied Ravi Shankar on the sarod during the latter's debut performance at the same conference; this was the first of many jugalbandis (duets) between the two musicians. In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio (AIR), Bombay (accompanied on the tabla by Alla Rakha), and starting in January 1940, he gave monthly performances on AIR, Lucknow. Finally in 1944, both Shankar and Khan left Maihar to start their professional careers as musicians; Shankar went to Bombay, while Khan became the youngest Music Director for AIR, Lucknow and was responsible for solo performances and composing for the radio orchestra. Khan has participated in a number of classic jugalbandi pairings, most notably with Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee and violinist L. Subramaniam. A few recordings of duets with Vilayat Khan also exist. He also collaborated with Western musicians. In August 1971, Khan performed at Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh, along with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty; other musicians at the concert included George Harrison, Bob Dylan,Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. A live album and a movie of the event were later released. 5.L Subramaniam Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (born on 23 July 1947) is an acclaimed Indian violinist,composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music, and renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion.Subramaniam was born to Hindu Brahmin V Lakshminarayana, and Seethalakshmi, both accomplished musicians of Tamil descent. He lived in Jaffna during his younger years, taking up music studies before the age of five.[1] He began training in violin under the tutelage of his father, Professor V. Lakshminarayana.