Pandit Kartick Kumar

Kartick Kumar was born on 11 November 1936 in Dhaka. He was introduced to Hindustani music by his father, Mangal Chandra Das, continued with Manoranjan Mukherjee, and became a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar; he also received training on the surbahar from Annapurna Devi.

In 1958 he won the President's Gold Medal for sitar in the All India Radio competition, and in 1960 he moved to Mumbai, where he built a career in both classical and film music. He taught as a professor of music at the Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha in Mumbai, sat on the All India Radio audition board in New Delhi and judged at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata. His son and student is the sitarist Niladri Kumar. He has released recordings including "Ragas and Moods", "Beyond Surbahar" and "Ritusamhar".

Kumar plays both sitar and surbahar, and his training under Ravi Shankar and Annapurna Devi places him in the Maihar-derived approach: long alap taken from dhrupad practice, then composition and steadily elaborated rhythmic development. His film work drew on the same tone but in short, arranged passages.