Recorded at Darbar Festival 2011, on 24th April, at King's Place, London.

Musicians:
- Roopa Panesar (sitar)
- Sukhvinder Singh (tabla)
- Gunwant Kaur (tanpura)

Raag Puriya; Thaat: Marwa; Samay: Night

Roopa Panesar plays a courageous choice of raag Puriya, which is wrapped up in complex layers which make the raga inaccessible even to senior and seasoned artists at times. Accompanying her on the tabla  is Sukhvinder Singh. He delivers a relishing support, augmenting the performance with rich tukdas at the right moments and calibrating his improvisations to match the soul of the sitar.  

Learn more about the music:
Raag Puriya, an evening melody belonging to the parent scale Marwa. Puriya’s revealing phrases reside in the lower and middle octaves and it deploys komal Re (flat 2nd) with its intriguing lower microtones. Teevra Ma (sharp 4th) is used as a signatory companion of Ni (7th) in its ascent and Pa or 5th is left out altogether.

With evocative phrases, Panesar delineates the raga with the 16-beat vilambit gat as the basis of her melodic and rhythmic expansions. The drut gat or the faster tempo composition is approached with meticulous attention to syllables and rhythmic improvisations. Her passionate and unwavering treatment of the raga is impressive. It mirrors the Imdadkhani gharana as her central style along with other nuances she has imbibed along the way.

Accompanying her on the tabla is Sukhvinder Singh. He delivers a relishing support, augmenting the performance with rich tukdas at the right moments and calibrating his improvisations to match the soul of the sitar.  

In the landscape of sitar players, Panesar has carved a name for herself. She is hard working, talented and has continued to grow as an artist. One of her most extraordinary aspects is her credentials as a brilliant chemical engineer that took her on a different career path initially. She left that path altogether to pursue her passion in music and set an example to the aspiring youth of today. We believe in her story of courage and conviction as much as we love her music.

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