Many happy returns

Today marks the 55th birthday of renowned classical music vocalist Razwan Ali, who recently received the Sangeetacharya honour from India's Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, Mumbai.

The senior Chhayanaut Guru is also an Assistant Professor at the Department of Music, Jagannath University, a guest trainer at Bengal Parampara Sangeetalaya, a visiting trainer of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and the master trainer of Lakshyapar.

The artiste's friends, colleagues, relatives, disciples, fans and other well wishers have arranged a celebration programme today at 6:30pm at the rooftop of Chhayanaut Building. The three-hour long programme will start off with a classical music performance by prominent and promising singers of Bangladesh.

Razwan Ali, one of the pioneers of initiating Chhayanaut's annual Shuddha Sangeet Utshab, recently spoke to The Daily Star on many aspects of classical music practice in Bangladesh. 

Students of Chhayanaut performed “Asta Kalyan”, a Raagmala based on eight distinctive ragas --Yaman, Bhoopali, Shudh Kalyan, Maru behag, Chhayanaut, Kedar and Nand (Anandi Kalyan) on teentaal at the recently held Chhayanaut Shuddha Sangeet Utshab and Lakshyapar Classical Music Festival. He composed the bandish of the Raagmala and directed the performance.

“The purpose of the presentation was to make the students effortlessly switch from one distinctive raga to another,” said Razwan Ali.

Chhayanaut's role is very important in promoting classical music and producing more of its practitioners. “Classical music is a vast subject and our students are really interested to learn it. Though we have some sorts of institutional shortcomings to teach the students following Guru-Shishya Parampara, we believe Chhayanaut's efforts will overcome these shortly. We, the teachers, should invest more time to teach them properly.”

The singer, who is also an academic syllabus designer, is an enlisted artiste of BTV and Bangladesh Betar. He started receiving lessons on classical vocal music from Bholanath Bhattacharya at District Shilpakala Academy in Magura in 1978, after which he continued training under Pt. Chandiprasad till 1983. Later he received tutelage from Ustad Abdul Bari Khan from 1984-1988. During this time he also learnt Nazrul Sangeet at Bubul Lalit Kala Academy. The singer is effortless in performing dhrupad, khayal, thumri, tappa, tarana, ghajal and bhajan as well. He completed his BPA and MPA in Classical Vocal Music from M.S. University, Baroda, India, on an ICCR scholarship. During that time he studied intensively for seven years under Pt. Narayan Rao Patbardhan of Gwalior Gharana.