Arvind Parikh (born 19 October 1927) is an Indian classical

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form i ...

player.

Early life

Arvind was born in Ahmedabad into a Gujarati business family with cultural and spiritual influences. His father Natwar Lal was a businessman and mother Chandra kala ben was a painter. His primary and secondary education continued in a nationalist school. In 1944, at the age of 17, he moved to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

and started learning from sitar player

Vilayat Khan Ustad Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player.Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the edu ...

, Bombay. His musical education continued uninterrupted for 60 years throughout his performing career, from 1944 to 2004 until Khan's death. Arvind was married to the ace classical singer Kishori Parikh (1929-2007). Kishori Parikh was a student of Kirana Gharana stalwarts Niaz Ahmed and Faiyaz Ahmad. The couple has a son Snehal and a daughter Poorvi, a classical singer.

Music career

Arvind Parikh has been performing for over six decades. Associations with other musicians helped him in his research work. These musicians include B. R. Deodhar, Latafat Hussain Khan, Amir Khan, Niyaz Ahmad-Faiyaz Ahmad Khan, D. T. Joshi, and

Radhika Mohan Maitra Radhika Mohan Maitra (1917–1981) was an Indian sarod player and the guru of Narendra Nath Dhar, Kalyan Mukherjea, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Sanjoy Bandopadhyay, Abanindra Maitra, Pranab Kumar Naha, Samarendra Nath Sikdar, Michael Robbins, and many ...

. He has performed in India and abroad. He has performed at music festivals in India and Europe, and has had concert tours in several parts of West Asia, Far East and Australia. Parikh is a regular performer on

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

. His daughter Purvi Parikh is also a classical vocalist. His wife was a disciple of Niyaz Ahmad - Faiyaz Ahmad Khan of Kirana gharana. Parikh has compiled compositions and ragas in "Sitar Guru" and "Bandish Parampara" published by Navras Records UK.

Cultural ambassador

Parikh was vice president of the International Music Council (UNESCO) during 1994-97 and is currently co-ordinator for the Indian sub-continent. He is President of the Indian Musicological Society, chairman of the Western India chapter of

ITC Sangeet Research Academy ITC Sangeet Research Academy is a Hindustani classical music academy run by the corporate house, ITC Ltd. It is located in Kolkata, India. Noted musicians associated with the academy include Ulhas Kashalkar, Falguni Mitra, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Us ...

. Parikh conceived establishing a forum at which all segments of the music world could meet to discuss issues of common interests. Music forums are established in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. He is currently spearheading an association of 12 classical musicians, called All India Musicians’ Group (AIMG) - drawn from the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions (including Zakir Hussain, Hari Prasad Chaurasia,

Shivkumar Sharma Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (13 January 1938 – 10 May 2022) was an Indian classical musician and santoor player who is credited with adapting the santoor for Indian classical music. As a music composer, he collaborated with Indian flautist Harip ...

, Ravi Kiran, and

Rajan-Sajan Mishra Rajan and Sajan Mishra ( hi, राजन और साजन मिश्रा) are brothers, singers of the khyal style of Indian classical music. They were awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2007, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, jointly in 1998, th ...

), to create greater support in government, industry and the media for Indian classical music.

Awards and recognition

Parikh has been awarded the Gaurav Puraskar for the year 1997-98 by the Gujarat State Sangeet Natak Academy. He has also been awarded the National Award by Sangeet Natak Akademi for Instrumental music (sitar) for the year 2003. He was given India's third highest civilian award, the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished servi ...

, in 2018.

Industrialist

Parikh has handled the pursuits of business and music simultaneously. Parikh's business is a logistics provider in 51 Indian cities. Its latest joint venture with Deutsche Post and DHL as DHL Lemuir Logistics Pvt. Ltd. He is chairman of an Indian transportation organization and director of a travel and tourism company, and his family owned group owns a company for printing accessories.

Early life

Music career

Cultural ambassador

Awards and recognition

Industrialist

References

Further reading