Rakesh Chaurasia

Rakesh Chaurasia was born in Allahabad in 1971. Published sources differ on the day — the Wikipedia article gives 10 January in its text and 13 January in its summary box — so only the year is stated here until a better source settles it.

He learned the bansuri from his uncle, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, and the Aga Khan Museum's concert biography describes him plainly as "nephew and disciple" of the elder Chaurasia. That training is the documented core of his playing; the Darbar Festival's profile notes how closely his phrasing follows vocal technique.

Alongside solo classical concerts he has recorded and toured widely outside the classical circuit. He appears on the banjo player Béla Fleck's album As We Speak with Edgar Meyer and Ustad Zakir Hussain; at the 66th Grammy Awards in 2024 the album won Best Contemporary Instrumental Album and its track "Pashto" won Best Global Music Performance, both credited to the four musicians. He also worked on Dhafer Youssef's Street of Minarets (2023), and his own albums include Call of Krishna (2003), Dor (2006), Finesse on Flute (2019, with Mukundraj Deo on tabla) and ZaRa (2022, with Zakir Hussain).

His playing is rooted in the bansuri idiom his uncle shaped — long, breath-led phrases and a close attention to vocal shaping of notes — while his collaborative work places the flute alongside banjo, double bass and tabla in written ensemble music rather than raga performance alone.