Pandita Shubhada Paradkar - Mehfil in Delhi on 29 July 2017

One of the mainstays of the work of NaadSaagar Archives & Documentation Society for South Asian Music on outreach and dissemination has been to host regular mehfil-s cutting across genres of North Indian classical music vocal and instrumental forms, featuring eminent musicians who hold tremendous social & cultural significance within the discourse of South Asian music traditions. During the period between July 2012 & July 2018, we organized a total of 20 such mehfil-s at the India International Centre (IIC), with logistic and financial support from Jnana Pravaha: Centre for Cultural Studies & Research. What made these mehfil-s unique is the archival perspective behind them, wherein each artiste’s work is viewed as an archive in itself. I had curated these mehfil-s carefully in close consultation with the artistes featured and repertoires were selected in such a way that something unique was presented to the audience, ensuring that each mehfil was peerless. The other unique feature of these mehfil-s was that each one was webcast live so that anyone anywhere in the world can access these without being physically present at the venue. It is now my pleasure to share them with the wider community of rasika-s here on YouTube.

Pandita Shubhada Paradkar’s musical journey started in Baroda where she learnt from Pandit R. D. Potdar and Pandit Madhusudan Joshi of the Kirana and Agra gharana-s. However, it was when she came under the tutelage of Pandit Gajananrao Joshi that her musicality received a clear direction. She also had the good fortune of learning from Pandit Babanrao Haldankar and Vidushi Padmavati Shaligram Gokhale of the Agra and Jaipur-Atrauli gharana-s. She has performed at all major festivals in India and at select venues abroad. As a guru, she teaches both in the guru-shishya parampara tradition as well as in the institutional contexts of S.N.D.T. University and Lalit Kala Kendra in Mumbai and Pune.