Indian classical musician and santoor player Ninad Daithankar is on a UK tour with ‘Sukoon – Strings of Peace’. From Pune in western India, the accomplished musician has performed not only across India but also internationally.
Daithankar has already had packed concerts in Manchester and Edinburgh, which will be followed by concerts in London and Leicester this weekend.
iGlobal caught up with the award-winning artist and performer after the Manchester leg of his tour recently to find out more about his inspiration and the theme of the concert series.
What are your impressions after the Manchester concert?
I feel very good because it was full house, and the audience was a mix of Indians, foreigners and local people. And the response was really good. I'm really, very happy to have such a nice audience.
Can you tell us a little bit about the name ‘Sukoon’?
Sukoon is an Urdu word. Basically, it means peace of mind. I’ve always been active on my Instagram and some time back when I started posting videos of Santoor, some of them went viral. People started coming across the videos and some of them were new to this instrument. But they really liked the sound of the instrument, and they used to write in the comments or the messages which are sent to me that. And 'sukoon' was the very common word in every message and comment. And that is when I thought this might be the title of my concert.
Many people shared their experiences with me. There was someone whose seven-year-old daughter was admitted in the hospital, and he said he felt peace after coming across your channel. There was someone who was having panic attacks, and the sound of Santoor helped him recover. I realised that music is helping people heal, and that should be the purpose of music.
Some people also said that they started listening to classical music after getting into Santoor and now they enjoy Indian classical music as well.
It was important for me to design a concert where I can cater to all kinds of audiences. So that's why in my concert, it is soulful exploration of different genres of music, such as classical music, folk music, Bollywood music, etc.
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Tell us more about the mix of ragas and modern tunes in your concert.
So first of all, I am a classical musician and I'm trained in Indian classical music. But having said that, I also really, I like film music and I feel it is really challenging to play film music on Santoor. And coincidentally, I started learning Santoor because of film music. I started trying out different songs and once my father saw that and he thought that he has some potential and he has some inclination towards Santoor. So that's how I got introduced to Santoor. And later on, he started training me formally in Indian classical music. So I'm well trained in Indian classical music. So that will be my first law always. But yeah, I do enjoy playing different genres of music on Santoor.
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Why and how did you decide to go into the field of music?
In my case, it was a very natural thing. My father, Dr. Dhananjay Daithankar, is my guru, and he's a senior disciple of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. My mother is a Bharatnatyam dancer, Dr. Swati Daitrekar and my elder sister Rupul is also a Bharatnatyam dancer and an actress. So music was very much in my family and I grew up listening to my father's riyaz [practice] and his concerts. I was fascinated by the sound of the instrument. If you listen to Santoor, anyone will feel attracted to the sound because it is very sweet and melodious. So that's how I got attracted to the instrument.
My father was okay with me having any other career. But I have decided to pursue this after completing my engineering. And the journey so far is very good. I'm getting good response all over India and abroad. And I'm also active on social media. So I'm getting all love from everyone. I'm very grateful for that.
*Info: Ninad Daithankar