Santoor maestro and Padma Shri awardee Bhajan Sopori passed away on June 2 in Fortis Hospital, Gurugram at the age of 73. According to reports, he was suffering from colon cancer. The santoor player was born in Sopore in Kashmir Valley in 1948 and belonged to the Sufiana gharana of Indian classical music. He was great-grandson of Pandit Shankar Pandit, who had developed the style popularly known as the ‘Sufi Baaj’ (style), based on Sufiana Qalam and Hindustani Classical music.
Hailed as ‘Saint of the Santoor’ and the ‘King of Strings’, Sopori won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992 and the Padma Shri in 2004. In 2009 he was honoured with the Baba Allaudin Khan Award and M N Mathur award in 2011 for his contribution to Indian classical music.
Sopori composed music for over 6000 songs in various languages and dialects like Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri, Sindhi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Himachali, Rajasthani, Telegu, Tamil, etc. and also foreign languages like Persian, Arabic, etc and his work was part of films, commercials, documentaries, serials, operas and choirs among others.
Pandit Sopori, who was considered as the cultural link between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of India, also ran a music academy called SaMaPa (Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts).
Sopori who learnt western classical music from Washington University and Hindustani from his grandgather S.C. Sopori and father Shambhoo Nath, was all of five when he gave his first public performance in 1953.
Meanwhile Twitter tributes have started to pour in for the Santoor legend.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Art-Culture News Click Here
