Some sitar concerts I've seen recently

In the last couple of months I've attended the concerts of a couple of visiting sitar artists. In November American tabla player Ty Burhoe brought sitar player Shubhendra Rao, a student of Pt. Ravi Shankar. Ty, a student of the great tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain, tours Australia at least once a year - we had a great sarod-bansuri-double tabla concert last year.

Nov 25: Ty Burhoe and Shubendra Rao

Over Christmas I visited my family in Perth and was lucky enough to attend the concert of sitar player Baluji Shrivastav at multicultural arts centre Kulcha in Fremantle. Baluji is a blind sitar player based in UK. He was accompanied by Fremantle-based tabla player Vick Ramakrishnan, who I met at Woodford last year. The first part of the concert consisted of short fusion pieces with Perth hornblower Marc Cain and Baluji's wife Linda Shanovitch singing. I would have loved to practise with Baluji while in Perth but unfortunately I'd sprained my wrist (doing yoga on soft sand - take care people!).

19 Dec Kulcha (Fremantle, WA): Baluji Shrivastav

Perth-based tabla player Vick Ramachandran accompanying Baluji Shrivastav