Pandit Shriram Umdekar Top Grade Artist — All India Radio & Doordarshan Sitar | Rudra Veena | Surbahar | Gwalior Gharana
Pandit Shriram Umdekar is a Top Grade Artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan, a renowned Sitar player and Guru, and an accomplished Rudra Veena and Surbahar player of the Hindustani classical tradition. He is the youngest son of Gwalior Rajdarbar Gayak, Gayanacharya Pandit Balabhau Umdekar ‘Kundal Guru,’ and belongs to a distinguished musical lineage of Gwalior in which music has been preserved as vidya, parampara, and sadhana. Born on 19 March 1951, Pandit Shriram Umdekar received his early training from his father, Pandit Balabhau Umdekar ‘Kundal Guru,’ through whom he imbibed the rigour, depth, and seriousness that the classical tradition demands. His musical sensibility was further nurtured by his mother, Shrimati Radhabai Umdekar, through whom he developed a deep and natural affinity for the sitar. He also learnt for a period from Pandit Vinayakrao Phadke. A defining passage in his musical life was his devoted discipleship under the legendary Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Sahab, o...