Blind Spot: Healing Ragas with Baluji Shrivastav OBE at Birmingham Symphony Hall
Indian classical concert featuring Baluji Shrivastav OBE performing compositions on sitar, accompanied by Yousuf Ali Khan on tablas and Linda Shanovitch on tanpura.
Indian maestro Baluji Shrivastav OBE will perform an uplifting concert on sitar accompanied by Yousuf Ali Khan on tablas and Linda Shanovitch on tanpura. Music that is both soothing and sublime.
Time Out ‘a source of pure delight’
Vogue ‘intoxicating’
In Indian philosophy sound is the creative energy - Shakti - of the universe. An accomplished musician can harness this energy to evoke different states of mind - Rasas - in the listener. Join Baluji on a harmonious musical journey to inner peace.
About
Baluji Shrivastav OBE is an Indian multi-instrumentalist and one of the world’s leading composers and sitar players. He has performed and recorded with some of the greatest tabla accompanists such as Anindo Chatterji and Ustad Fayaz Khan. He has worked with a wide variety of artists including Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Massive Attack. His compositions feature in a wide spectrum of films, theatre and television. The documentary film ‘Baluji’ about his life and work was directed by Marie-Cecile Embleton and has been screened at the New York Film Festival & the Auroville Film Festival in India.
Baluji and his wife, musician and writer Linda Shanson, established the Baluji Music Foundation in 2008 to increase opportunities for blind and visually impaired people. They founded the Inner Vision Orchestra of professional blind and visually impaired musicians in 2012. Baluji has been blind since the age of 8 months. Baluji was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours List for services to music and in 2016 was given the GG2 Award for Overcoming Adversity. In 2017, Times Group India awarded him the accolade of Non-Resident Indian of the Year for Art and Culture. In 2019 Baluji received the prestigious Hind Rattan Award-Jewel of India from the Indian Government.
Yousuf Ali Khan comes from the same famous musical dynasty as Ali Akhbar Khan, and began playing tabla at the age of five. He studied in Kolkata before coming to England from Bangladesh in 1980. An internationally-known performer and accompanist of choice for Bangladeshi and Indian musicians visiting the UK, Yousuf has released several albums of his own and published a book with youth arts charity Music for Youth.
Linda Shanovitch is a musician and composer and is part of Baluji's Jazz group, Jazz Orient
Baluji Music Foundation Blind Spot performances are designed to promote regular performances in music venues by talented blind and partially sighted musicians.