Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, born 1 July 1938 in Allahabad, is internationally regarded as the greatest living master of the bansuri, the North Indian bamboo flute. He began with vocal music, switched to the flute under Pandit Bholanath Prasanna of Varanasi, and later received guidance from the reclusive Annapurna Devi. Over a career of more than sixty years he has done more than any other musician to expand and popularise the bansuri.

Chaurasia expanded the expressive range of the bansuri with a masterful blowing technique and remains one of the busiest classical musicians in the world. With the santoor maestro Shivkumar Sharma he formed the film-music duo Shiv-Hari, scoring films such as Silsila, Chandni and Lamhe, and he has collaborated internationally with George Harrison, John McLaughlin and Jan Garbarek. He founded the Vrindavan Gurukul in Mumbai (2006) and Bhubaneswar (2010) to train young flautists, and serves as artistic director of the World Music department at the Rotterdam Conservatory.

Chaurasia plays the bansuri with extraordinary breath control and tonal depth, drawing on the older dhrupad tradition while shaping a lyrical, accessible voice for the instrument. He moves between profound solo raga recitals, jugalbandi, film music and cross-cultural collaboration.