<img src='' title='Event Category: Concerts' alt='' id='templ_icon_' width='' height='' /> Event Category: Concerts

Resonance: Ode to Call of the Valley brings together three of Indian classical music’s most expressive voices in an intimate trio performance. Santoor virtuoso Ninad Daithankar and bansuri exponent Saurabh Vartak are joined by accomplished tabla artist Saleel Tambe, creating a rich and evolving musical conversation rooted in the Hindustani tradition.

Ninad Daithankar plays the santoor—a hundred-stringed trapezoid instrument from Kashmir, struck with lightweight wooden mallets. A Citi–NCPA Scholar, he has performed extensively across India, Europe, and North America. Saurabh Vartak performs on the bansuri, the bamboo flute deeply associated with Lord Krishna. Based in Pune, he regularly performs alongside the legendary Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and runs his own academy dedicated to preserving and passing on this lineage.

In this trio setting, melody and rhythm unfold collaboratively within a chosen raga (melodic framework) and tala (rhythmic cycle). The santoor and bansuri weave and exchange melodic phrases while the tabla anchors, accents, and propels the music forward. As the performance develops, the interplay becomes increasingly layered and dynamic, culminating in a fluid three-way dialogue. The bell-like resonance of the santoor, the warm, breathy tone of the bansuri, and the rhythmic clarity of the tabla together create a soundscape that is both meditative and exhilarating.

What happens when the warm, winding tones of jazz saxophone meet the ancient percussion of jori? You get something rare, an experience that is both meditative and thrillingly experimental.

This fusion is no accident. Jesse Bannister, born of mixed Indian and British heritage, has spent his career bridging musical worlds with daring intention. Trained under Pandit K. Sridhar, he has composed for the Hallé Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and City of London Sinfonia, and collaborated with luminaries including Talvin Singh, Bickram Ghosh and Aruna Sairam. His project In Tune draws together Indian classical music, orchestral composition, and sound healing into a single, cohesive vision, performed across England at the London Jazz Festival, Darbar, Bridgewater Hall, and the QEH.

Anchoring the rhythm is Jasdeep Singh, a dedicated jori exponent who is on a mission to restore this ancient double-headed drum to its rightful place at the heart of Indian classical music. Long used as an accompanying instrument, Jasdeep believes the jori deserves to be heard as a lead voice, rich in texture, expressive in tone, and steeped in centuries of tradition.

Where jazz breathes and tradition pulses, something extraordinary takes shape.

Chandra Chakraborty is one of Britain’s foremost Indian classical vocalists, specialising in khayal—the predominant vocal form of North Indian classical music. A Gold Medallist of All India Radio and former scholar of the Sangeet Research Academy, she has performed at the Southbank Centre, the House of Commons, and for Her Majesty the Queen. She is accompanied by esraj (a bowed string instrument) and tabla.

Khayal, meaning ‘imagination’, gives the singer freedom to improvise within a chosen raga. The performance typically begins with an unmetered alaap—a slow, wordless exploration of the raga’s notes and phrases—before introducing a bandish (composition) set to a tala. The singer then develops the raga through techniques including taan (rapid melodic passages) and bol (rhythmic play with the song’s lyrics). The esraj mirrors and responds to the voice, while the tabla maintains the rhythmic cycle and engages in dialogue with the singer.