Darbar Indian Music by the Candlelight: Budhaditya Bhattacharyya

There is something quietly radical about hearing centuries-old melodies rise beneath the vaulted ceilings of St Martin-in-the-Fields, candlelight flickering against stone as an ancient musical tradition unfolds in real time, note by note, entirely unrehearsed.  

This is the setting for an evening led by Budhaditya Bhattacharyya, a singer of khayal, a form of Indian classical music built around live improvisation, where the performer explores a single melodic framework, or raga, in the moment, the way a jazz musician might improvise around a theme. Bhattacharyya has spent over fifteen years training under one of India’s most revered vocalists, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, and brings a scholar’s precision to his artistry: alongside performing, he holds a doctorate in music from Durham University and has spent years researching and reviving rare, little-heard melodies and rhythms from an endangered musical lineage, working alongside fellow musicologist Ustad Mehfooz Khokhar. 

He’s joined on stage by two musicians essential to this tradition: Siddhiie Kapshikarr on the harmonium, a small hand-pumped keyboard instrument that weaves a continuous melodic thread beneath the voice, and Janan Sathiendran on tabla, a pair of hand drums that provide the rhythmic pulse.  

You don’t need any background in Indian music to feel the pull of this evening; you simply need to be in the room, by candlelight, to witness this oldest living tradition live.