Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia
Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian classical flautist and composer who plays the bansuri in the Hindustani classical tradition. Starting in the late 1950s, he developed the bansuri as a concert instrument through an approach drawing on vocal and instrumental techniques of Hindustani music, and became one of India's internationally known classical musicians.
Born into a family with no professional musical background, Chaurasia initially trained as a wrestler at the insistence of his father while secretly studying music. He began his professional career with All India Radio (AIR) in Cuttack in 1957 before being transferred to Bombay in 1962, where he became active in both classical music and the Hindi film industry. He later became a disciple of Annapurna Devi of the Maihar gharana. Alongside his classical career he worked extensively as a studio flautist, formed the film-composing partnership Shiv-Hari with santoor player Shivkumar Sharma producing notable filmscores like Silsila (1981) and Chandni (1989). He also collaborated with musicians including George Harrison, Zakir Hussain, John McLaughlin and Jan Garbarek.
He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984, the Padma Bhushan in 1992 and India's second higest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan in 2000. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, its highest honour.
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