ITC Sangeet Research Academy

History

ITC-SRA's Origin:

ITC's association with music began with the ITC Sangeet Sammelan conducted in Delhi in 1971. This Sammelan also instituted a substantial cash award to be given to one of the oldest living musicians of stature. The Sammelan took Delhi by storm and went on to become an annual rage. Consistently featuring the reigning monarchs of the music world, this annual Sammelan changed the culture-scape of the capital of the country.


ITC Pioneers Corporate Patronage of Music:


ITC then pioneered the corporate patronage of Hindustani classical music, an integral part of Indian classical music, which was suffering from the withdrawal of royal support. Corporate patronage of music on this scale was unknown before.

During the mid-seventies, ITC's top management envisioned that the Company could play a major role to preserve and propagate the rich Indian musical heritage. Bearing in mind that there were several futile attempts to build gurukuls of music during the last 50 years, ITC aspired to go beyond merely nurturing and propagating the priceless tradition of Hindustani Classical Music. In creating ITC-SRA, ITC's farsighted endeavour was to establish a modern 'Gurukul' and revive the traditional 'Guru-Shishya Parampara'.

ITC-SRA was created in 1977 as an independent Public Charitable Trust. It was modelled as an institution to epitomise the best of Hindustani Classical Music. There was also a clear understanding that it would never seek any monetary help from the government and that it would be professionally run.

Advantages of studying here

-Milestones:

1. Sangeet Sammelans:

Contemporary classical music has taken on a new life and vigour with ITC-SRA's music festivals during the last 20 years. Many celebrated artists have played a significant role in this endeavour- Pandit V G Jog, Smt Girija Devi, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Smt Protima Bedi, Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra and many others, along with ITC-SRA's own renowned gurus and scholars.


From 1979, every winter ITC-SRA has been organising a tour in which artistes and scholars travel together in a bus in a spirit of learning together and perform in different towns. It is a special experience that is integral to the collective living and learning at ITC-SRA.

During one such tour, Pandit Jog, Shivji, Hariji, Vijay Kichlu, Zakir Hussain and Krishna Chowdhury were walking together through a narrow lane in Patiala.

Suddenly people from behind started shouting. A bull came charging. Before the galaxy of musicians could move out of the bull's way, the bull hit Panditji. Panditji fell down, but immediately got up and started running towards the bull. Vijay Kichlu shouted, "Panditji, what are you doing?" Pat came Panditji's reply: "I am going to ask the bull if he got hurt".


Many Sammelans have been organised in remote nooks and corners of the country that were hitherto oblivious of the melodious strains of Indian Classical music.

The ITC Mini Sangeet Sammelans are tours of a different kind. Travelling together, artists perform in small towns and cities across the country: from Jammu, Patiala and Kurukshetra in the North, to Guntur, Pondicherry and Manipal in the South. Concerts have also been held in Bharuch, Latur, Bijapur (Maharashtra), Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh), Kotah, Alwar (Rajasthan) and in Basirhaat, Murshidabad and Ranaghat (West Bengal).


2.Seminars and Workshops:

The ITC Sangeet Research Academy, while recognising the pre-eminence and indispensability of the Guru-Shishya Parampara, realises that training without adequate backup of research and rationalisation can go astray. A significant wing of the Academic Research function is the Annual Musicological Seminar, which has provided a unique platform for joint deliberations by musicians, musicologists, researchers, teachers and students, since the 1980's. ITC-SRA's Scientific Research Department, in their effort to link tradition to scientific methodologies has been organising symposia and workshops from 1987. The objective of these workshops/symposia is to create awareness of research in various fields of music and to promote a closer relationship between these fields and science. The workshops/symposia seek to achieve this by revealing the status of knowledge in these areas by reporting important issues and highlighting unsolved problems.

Focusing on instrumental music to complement ITC-SRA's emphasis on vocal music, the Western Regional Committee has organised immensely popular workshops and seminars on the Sitar, Sarod, Sarangi, Tanpura and Tabla, in which leading instrumentalists participated. The Committee is also working on the University Grants Commission to revise the music syllabus at the University level.

Description

ITC Limited established the prestigious ITC Sangeet Research Academy (ITC-SRA) in 1978 with the objective of preserving and promoting Hindustani Classical Music. ITC-SRA has played a major role to revive and nurture India's rich heritage of Hindustani Classical Music. This rich musical tradition, a national treasure trove, would have otherwise worn out with the passage of time and become a part of history.

ITC-SRA enshrines the principles that nurture the past to build the future. More importantly, it embodies the underlying philosophy and spirit of this art form.


-Aims and Objectives:

The loss of royal patronage threw the arts open to public mercy. Classical music, in its pure form, is fundamentally a complex study and therefore, cannot come within the reach of the uninitiated. As a result, serious music suffered. Pt. V N Bhatkhande and Pt. V D Paluskar tried to bring classical music within the reach of the middle class intelligentsia, in a systematic way, by introducing music education in universities and institutions. But such institutions rarely succeeded in producing musicians.

History reveals that the only effective method to impart the complex techniques of any art form, especially music, is through long years of close involvement between teacher and student. This enables the teacher help the student imbibe music as an art form, while yet allowing it to naturally unfold in its full creative splendour.

ITC Ltd., therefore, chose classical music as its area of soc