Kolkata :

West Bengal State Music Academy will confer this year’s Allauddin Purashkar on sitar maestro Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee.

The award, instituted in the name of legendary classical musician Ustad Allauddin Khan in 1987, carries a citation and a cash prize of Rs 25,000. Previous recipients of the award include Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta, Pandit Manilal Nag and Manna De.

Mukherjee, who earlier won the Allauddin Khan Memorial Fellowship offered by the Madhya Pradesh government, plays sitar and surbahar in the Imdadkhani tradition of Etawah. Speaking to TOI, he said, “I am pleasantly surprised and honoured that the state government considered my name for this award.”

Academy’s member secretary and deputy director of information and cultural affairs department Malabasri Das said, “We will also honour dancer Vidushi Rani Karnaa with Uday Shankar Purashkar, tabla maestro Pandit Gobinda Bose with Jnan Prakash Ghosh Purashkar and Agra gharana vocalist Subhra Guha with Girija Shankar Purashkar for their contribution to various forms of performing arts.”

“I was born in Sindh in Pakistan. But Kolkata has been my second home for the last 40 years. It is great to see that the Bengal government has selected me for this honour,” said Karnaa, a disciple of Odissi legend Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will hand over the awards to the maestros at an event at Nazrul Mancha on Tuesday.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / May 26th, 2015