• Western Region Awards, 2007
  
  The ITC SRA Western Region Awards for 2007, were distributed by Professor R.C.Mehta, Honorary General Secretary, Indian Musicological Society.
  
  Senior musicians Pandit Manohar Chimote and Pandit Shrikrishna (Babbanrao) Haldankar were presented the awards for their dedicated service to music. The credit of elevating the harmonium to the level of a solo concert instrument and its transformation into samvadini, a new instrument, goes to Pandit Chimote. He has re-engineered the instrument by replacing the tempered scale tuning to Gandhar tuning and introducing strings near the sound box to sustain the tone. He has also revolutionized the style and technique of playing samvadini by adapting sitar-ang repertoire and facilitating continuity between two notes. Pandit Haldankar is an ‘A’ grade vocalist of All India Radio whose style is basically Agra with a delightful moulding of Jaipur. Trained by such greats as Ganatapaswini Mogubai Kurdikar and Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan, he has several commercial albums to his credit and is a prolific composer, musicologist and teacher.
  
  The awards for promising artistes went to selected prize winners of the 2007 Music competition organized by All India Radio. The winner for Hindustani Music (Dhrupad) was Shri Nishant Kumar Mallick of Darbhanga. Shri Javed Khan, a sarangi player from Bhopal won the award for Hindustani classical instrumental music. The award for Carnatic vocal classical music went to Shri Kottakkal Ranjith Varier. Kumari K.P.Nandini, a violinist, was the winner for Carnatic classical instrumental music.

Awards Archives