VASANTRAO DESHPANDE SANGEET SABHA

Vasantrao Deshpande Sangeet Sabha came into being in 2000. Pt. Chandrakant Limaye, disciple and successor of Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande, established this organization and began its activities by paying a musical tribute to the memory of his Guru at Chhabildas hall, Dadar. This marked the beginning of the activities which are in progress since then, with an ever increasing zeal.

The programmes are conceived and designed by Pt. Chandrakant Limaye, who is a great scholar, a versatile vocalist of Hindustani classical music, a renowed actor of Marathi Sangeet Natak and the founder and the managing trustee of Vasantrao Deshpande Sangeet Sabha.

Celebrating special occasions by presenting theme based programmes is the distinguishing feature of this organization.

VDSS DASHAKPOORTI SOHLA PHOTO, view more

 

VDSS DASHAKPOORTI SOHLA:
As a founder and Director of Vasantroa Deshpande Sangeet Sabha (VDSS), Pt. Chandrakant Limaye hosted a two day music festival on 18th and 19th August 2010, to mark the completion of ten years of VDSS. The anniversary sweetly coincided with the 60th birthday of Pt. Chandrakant Limaye . Panditji’s disciples celebrated his birthday in a very unique style which is most popularly known as “Puneri Style” which included Uparna, Pagadi (Turban) and Thaili as a token of Gurudakshina. The festival was called ‘VDSS Dashakpoorti Sohla & Panditji’s Shashtyabdipoorti Samarambha’ and was held at Ravindra natya mandir, Prabhadevi, Mumbai as a tribute to the memory of the eminent and illustrious Guru- Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande

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There were a series of events which triggered off with a great start by release of Panditji’s Audio CD by Pt. Shankar Abhyankar accompanied by the release of Smarnika ‘Swar Taj’ by the chief guest, the very well known music director, Shree Yashwant Dev. He also honoured and congratulated Panditji and his wife with a shawl and a saree respectively. The smaranika includes some of the best articles published on Dr. Vasntrao Deshpande in 1984 such as “Pt. Vasantkhan Deshpande” by Shri. P.L.Deshpande, “Maifilitli sum chukli kashi?” by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, “Sangeetala Labhleli Denagi” by Pt.Hirabai Badodekar, “Swara srushtitil Baharleli Gazal” by Shri. Sudhakar Bakshi and also on the occasion of sixtieth birthday of  Pt. Chandrakat Limaye  some new articles were included such as “Surashri- Chandrakant Limaye” by Smt.Vasanti Muzumdar, “Katyarla Milala Rajbinda Khansaheb” by Shri.Vivek Chhatre and “Ishwarane Sachcha Sur Dyawa” by Smt. Jaya Kale. Articles related to progress of sangeet sabha  and some of the photographs of Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande & programs conducted so far by “Vasantrao Deshpande Sangeet sabha” have also been included in the same which was extremely appreciated by all the music lovers during the two days festival.

The  ceremony was followed by inauguration of CD of Pt. Chandrakant Limaye by renowned  Sitar player and composer Pt. Shankar Abhyankar. The CD includes Raag Kaushi in Panditji’s inimitable style followed by a Dadra “Saware aijaiyo” and most popular Marathi stage song “Surat piya ki” from famous Marathi play Katyar Kaljat Ghusali concluded by a “Sindh Bhairavi”.

The celebrations were followed by a vocal recital by a renowned vocalist of “Kirana Gharana”  Pt. Kaivalyakumar Gurav from Dharwad, accompanied by Shree Atul Tade and Makarand Kundale on Tabla and Harmonium respectively.
On the secong day, the 19th of August, 2010:

Morning session started with the vocal recitals of Panditji’s students, Swanand Bhusari and Seema Tade. This was followed by a solo tabla performance by Shree Atul Tade, disciple of Ustad Babasaheb Mirajkar of Kolhapur, which was applauded by all the audience. Followed by this was Pandit Satyasheel Deshpande’s (disciple of Pt. Kumar Gandharva) vocal performance in which he showed various shades of Kumarji’s Gayaki.
 

The morning session concluded with a interactive forum “ Maifal Vinodanchi” with Pt. Shankar Abhyankar (renowed Sitarist n composer), and Smt. Kamal Abhyankar (famous Sanskrit Scholar). The couple’s wit, humour and open hearted sharing, kept people happy and laughing right till the end of the forum.
Evening session was opened by the vocal recital of Panditji’s student Sunil Pandit. Thereafter Pt. Chandrakant Limaye himself gave a performance that included Raag Bageshri & Raag Kedar. With the awesome performance the audience became flabbergasted. The session was finally concluded with a wonderful performance by Pt. Rajan and Pt. Sajan Mishra. They were accompanied by Shree Atulchandra Tade, Shree Makarnd Kundale, Shri. Vidyadhar Oak, Shree Nana Mule and Shree Sudhanshu Gharpure.
The programme was compered by Mrs. Kavita Moghe & on the auspicious occasion of the 10th anniversary celebrations, the festival was kept free of cost by Vasantrao Deshpande Sangeet Sabha for all the music lovers on 18th as well as 19th August 2010.