Indian classical music star to perform in Halesworth

The recently OBE awarded Baluji Shrivastav, is a blind musician who excels in playing the sitar, dilruba and tabla among other traditional Indian instruments.

He will perform at The Cut on March 18, accompanied by Sanju Sahai on tablas.

Described by London’s Evening Standard as “sitarist to the stars”, his versatility has led him to work with acts like Massive Attack, Stevie Wonder and Coldplay as well as many of India’s finest artists including Ustad Faiyaz Khan, Anindo Chatterji and Akram Khan.

Baluji has released 8 albums through ARC Music including: “Classical Indian Sitar and Surbahar Ragas”, “Shadow of the Lotus”, and “Re-Orient - Indian World Music Fusion”.

His new album “The Best of Baluji Shrivastav”, will also include a number of tracks from his project The Inner Vision Orchestra, the UK’s only orchestra of blind and visually impaired musicians.

Awarded the OBE in 2016 for services to music, he founded the Baluji Music Foundation to encourage disabled people to get involved in music.

“I am thrilled to perform at a venue that I have not visited before, discovering a new space and meeting new people,” he said.

“The audience will go on a first class trip to India listening to the music that was played at the court of Akbar the Great, who encouraged the flourishing of this music.

“I will be performing on sitar, which is made from a pumpkin and has 21 strings, an earthy instrument with a divine sound. I will also play a rarely heard instrument which came to India from Persia called dilruba.”

He will be accompanied by Nand Kumar who will be playing tablas.

It won’t be the first time he has been to Suffolk after his children got scholarships to attend a school in Framlingham, so he used to visit. He said he would “love” to play at Framlingham Castle one day.

The concert starts at 7.30pm and tickets are £12 standard and £10 for concessions.

To book tickets visit http://newcut.org/events/entry/5007