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Sharmistha Sen is one of the few women
instrumentalists to have attained prominence in Indian Classical
music. Her main teachers were the late Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan,
who played in the classic dhrupad-based Jaipur -Seniya style;
and the late Professor D. T. Joshi, a widely respected teacher
who was a disciple of the legendary Ustad Inayat Khan. Her musical
style can perhaps be described as a cross between the traditional
Imdadkhani style imbibed from D. T. Joshi, and the Jaipur Seniya
style learned from Mushtaq Ali Khan. Her touch, strokes, glides
and subsequent production of tonal and microtonal effects are
typical of her two gurus, but has a signature decidedly her own.
There are very few accomplished musicians today who have had music
training both in the unique classical Master-disciple, guru-shishya
system as well as in the modern University system where she earned
her doctoral degree from Visvabharati University in Santiniketan.
Sharmistha made her public debut when she was just
thirteen. She has won numerous awards and participated in many
major music festivals in India. Later, she concertized throughout
Europe and the U. S. During the 1983-84 academic year, she was
on the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, as
Artist-in-Residence . She is currently Professor of Music in Daulat
Ram College at Delhi University.
My Instruments
I have two sitars, both made by famous instrument makers of Calcutta, one made by Hiren Roy and the other by Kanai Lal. One was made when I was learning from Professor D. T. Joshi and the other when I started my training under Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan. Interestingly one sitar has 19 frets and the other 17 frets—sort of a trademark on the instruments of my two gurus. Professor D. T. Joshi was a disciple of the legendary sitarist Ustad Inayat Khan and Joshikaka himself became an esteemed and important musical figure of the twentieth century. Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan was a distinguished surbahar and sitar player who played in the classic dhrupad-based Jaipur-Seniya style.
My Teachers
When Joshikaka (Professor D.T. Joshi) left Delhi in 1961 he wanted me to continue advanced training from Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan. This was around the time I had received a national scholarship to learn music intensively in the guru-shishya tradition. My introduction to Ustadji was in the early fifties. I had played for him when I was a child in Mr. Bose’s house in Daryaganj. I remember Ustadji was very impressed with my performance and taught me a composition in raag Yaman, a very simple composition which had the purpose of bringing out the correct use of the right and the left hand, a composition I still teach my students.
My “Musical” Home
My father and mother loved music and it was through their love that our house in 24 Daryaganj became a home away from home for Delhi musicians and many other musicians from all over North India who passed through Delhi. It was a venue for many mehfils (musical soirée), as well as a meeting place for musicians where spontaneous discussions took place.
My father, “Baba” had enormous respect for the musicians of his day. To the Ustads of Delhi, such as Hafiz Ali Khan and Mushtaq Hussain Khan, he was known as Doctor Sahib, as he was manager of the Calcutta Chemical Company and provided therapies for their minor ailments. Our house was an almost continuous meeting place for musicians and for close friends such as Ustadji, D.T. Joshi and Radika Mohan Moitra. Musicians of different gharanas would gather here, eat, drink and talk; and the discussions invariably moved to music and the finer points of musical interpretation.
This is the atmosphere where my music was shaped...
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