Raghunandan Panshikar

Born into a lineage of Sanskrit scholars and classical musicians and as the son of the eminent Marathi stage actor and producer Prabhakar Panshikar, Raghunandan Panshikar's aptitude for music was recognized and fostered from an early age. At 11, Raghunandan began his formal study of music in Mumbai under the tutelage of the late Pandit Vasantrao Kulkarni. Six years later, he commenced training with the doyen of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, Gaan Saraswati Smt. Kishori Amonkar. Over the next 17 years under Kishori-ji's keen guidance he worked painstakingly to imbibe her complex and unique musical style through rigorous daily riyaaz. During this time, Raghunandan was also fortunate to learn from Kishori-ji's mother & guru, the late Gaan Tapaswini Smt. Mogubai Kurdikar, who learned directly from the the late Sangeet Samrat Ustad Alladiya Khan, founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. By training with both Mogubai-ji and Kishori-ji, Raghunandan achieved an authenticity in many aspects of the Jaipur-Atrauli style - a full throated akaar, dazzling taans, a sophisticated use of techniques such as meend and gamak, and a clever grasp of the intricacies of layakari. In addition to mastery of the presentation of classical raags, Raghunandan's command of semi-classical genres (thumri, ghazal, bhajan, abhang, etc.) accounts for his versatility & singularity among Hindustani vocalists. Training with Kishori-ji in these various styles, Raghunandan developed an innate, emotive vocal quality and honed his Hindi/Urdu, Marathi, and Sanskrit diction. Raghunandan's presentation of ghazal compositions by masters like Ghulam Ali, Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh, and Kishori-ji have enthralled music aficionados throughout India. Raghunandan has recorded many classical albums under reputed record labels such as HMV (Mumbai) and Alurkar Music House (Pune). His commercially available raags are Bhoop Nat, Niranjani Todi, a Pahadi Thumri, Bhoop, Sampoorna Malkauns, Pooriya Dhanashree, Anand Malhar, Nayaki Kanhada, Bilaskhani Todi, Shuddha Sarang, Hansadhwani, Mishra Kafi, and Basant Bahaar. Raghunandan's magical classical and semi-classical music performances have charmed audiences throughout India, in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bengal, and Kerala. Very early in his musical career, he has already been conferred with numerous awards, such as the 'Dattopant Deshpande Puraskar' (1992, Pune), the 'Sangeet Kala Ratna Puraskar' (2000, Patna), and the 'Manik Verma Puraskar' (2005, Pune). Raghunandan made his mark in playback singing also when he sang for the Hindi art-film by Govind Nihalani, 'Drishti', whose music was composed by Kishori-ji.