MUMBAI: The ‘Pratahswar’ morning raga series by Pancham Nishad in its 16th year presents its 125th concert featuring talented young Sitarist Ankush Nayak from Mangalore accompanied by Yashwant Vaishnav on Tabla. The concert is scheduled on Sunday, 25th December 2022 at 7.00 a.m. at Kala Prangan, Pu. La. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi (Open Foyer). This is a non-ticketed concert and is open to all. 

16 years back a simple thought of giving the discerning listeners of Indian Classical Music an opportunity to listen to morning ragas under the ambiance of natural surroundings once a month sans monsoon season prompted Pancham Nishad to start a monthly concert series titled ‘Pratahswar’ at the Kala Prangan of Pu. La. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy. Little did we realize that this was a maiden effort in the city of Mumbai and probably in the entire nation that proved to be a runaway success story says Shashi Vyas – Founder and Director of Pancham Nishad. 

Over the years, Pratahswar which commenced with a small family of music enthusiasts has grown into a big joint family. It gives us tremendous joy to make a special mention that ‘Pratahswar’ has never repeated any artiste in its 124 concerts to date. 

“Pratahswar”, concert series of morning ragas is presented on a Sunday morning once a month from October to May of next year featuring mainly young and senior talented artists. The duration of the concert is two hours. 

Artiste Profile

Ankush Nayak, a young man who loves playing sitar just as he loves technology, son of Narendra and Ushaprabha Nayak. A B. Tech (Metallurgical and Materials Engineering) graduate from the prestigious NIT-K Suratkal and an MS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Arizona, USA. 

He was initiated into Sitar learning at the age of 9 under the tutelage of the renowned Sitarist Ustad Rafique Khan. He has also taken lessons in Carnatic music taala system from Ghatam maestro Vidwan Trichy K R Kumar. He has also been trained by the legendary Sarod artiste Pt. Buddhadev Das Gupta, as a junior scholar at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata. Ankush is a B-high graded artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan (a national television channel of India) and has performed for TV and Radio several times. He is also a member artist of the SHIVA Fusion Music group, an indo-western fusion band comprising internationally renowned musicians.