Shilper Shadhak Abul Khair Litu presents Vijay Kichlu with the SSF Lifetime Achievement Award in Kolkata

Dedicated to Swara Samrat Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the Swara Samrat Festival (SSF) is a four-day annual event of Indian classical music and dance. It takes place in Kolkata, usually between the months of December and February. The event, organised under the banner of Shree Ranjini Foundation Trust, is an initiative of sarod maestro Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar.

This year, the stage of SSF was graced by  the performances of Indian classical music and dance legends such as Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Pandit Jasraj along with Ustad Zakir Hussain, Vidushi  Girija Devi, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Guru Karaikudi Mani, Ustad Rashid Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar,  Pandit Kushal Das and Kaushiki Chakraborty, among others.

At the festival, Abul Khair, Chair, Bengal Foundation, Bangladesh, presented the SSF Lifetime Achievement Award to Vijay Kichlu, the Founder and Head of ITC Sangeet Research Academy, for his contributions toward the propagation of Indian classical music. Present on the stage were tabla maestros Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri and Ustad Zakir Hussain, along with Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar and Manasi Majumdar. The award ceremony was followed by a three hour jugalbandhi of Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar on the sarod, and Ustad Zakir Hussain on the tabla. 

Khair himself recieved the 2018 SSF Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in the propagation, promotion and facilitation of proper training of Indian classical music and dance as well as other artistic fields across Bangladesh. It was presented to him by renowned painter Jogen Chowdhury. The title of Shilper Shadhak was also conferred upon Khair, along with a beautiful sculpted memento.

Swara Samrat Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009) was a sarod maestro of the Maihar gharana. He was born in the village of Shibpur in Brahmanbaria, Cumilla, to renowned musician and teacher, Baba Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum. Young Ali Akbar had the privilege of learning to play the sarod and receive training in classical music from his father Baba Allauddin Khan, who is considered to be one of the most notable teachers of Indian classical music of the 20th century. Other than playing the sarod, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan had also composed numerous classical ragas and film scores. He is reputed for popularising Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer and as a teacher. He first visited the United States in 1955 upon the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later, taught and settled in California.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was honoured with India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, he was also nominated five times at the Grammy Awards.