An Instrumental Journey Through the Nature

Norden Farm in Maidenhead has free on-site parking with more than 80 spaces and about six reserved Blue Badge spaces near the front entrance. Inside, the main performance spaces and café have level access, lifts serve the building, and adapted toilets are available. The Courtyard Theatre has an infra-red hearing system, and a personal assistant accompanying a disabled visitor can get a complimentary ticket.

KalaSudha presented an evening of Indian classical music in Maidenhead at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts on Altwood Road (SL6 4PF), on Wednesday 23 August 2023. KalaSudha is also launching a streaming player on its own platform soon, with live concerts and edited recordings of past concerts in up to 4K. For future Maidenhead dates, see how to hear about new KalaSudha concerts in Maidenhead.

Pandit Debasis Chakroborty is a Hindustani slide guitarist and the senior-most disciple of Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra, and his playing reflects Kabra's style. His name is also written Debasis Chakraborty. He plays in the Senia-Maihar gharana and has taught since 1992.

He has been part of the Department of Performing Arts at Mangalayatan University since its inception, and returns to universities in Australia and the USA as a conductor-performer and artist-in-residence. He helped carry out a joint music research project between Mangalayatan University and Monash University, and has published 10 research papers.

Deepak Shah is a pianist, arranger and music director from a musical family. His grandfather, Shantilal Shah, and Mohan Junior taught him classical music, and that training opened the door to arrangement and direction. Over about 25 years he has worked with leading artists from India and performed in India and abroad. He has composed music and background scores for over 30 films in Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bhojpuri, and recorded albums with T-Series, Tips and Venus.

The Indian slide guitar is a guitar laid flat across the lap and stopped with a steel bar instead of fingers on frets. It is an instrument of Hindustani classical music, the classical music of North India. Sympathetic strings ring underneath the melody unstruck, and the player plucks extra drone (chikari) strings.

The bar never leaves the string, so one note travels into the next without a break. For its history and players, see the Indian slide guitar page. You can learn it with KalaSudha in the online academy.

The Senia-Maihar gharana is the sarod lineage that Allauddin Khan founded at Maihar, a former princely state, in the early 20th century. Most sources treat it and the Maihar gharana as one school spanning several instruments. "Senia" names the Tansen line, which Allauddin Khan joined as a disciple of Wazir Khan of Rampur. He brought a dhrupad approach to the sarod, sitar, violin and bansuri. Among KalaSudha's artists, Pandit Debasis Chakroborty plays in the gharana.