About our beloved Guruji
Sadanandji was initiated into the art of Tabla playing by the legendary Guru & Tabla / Pakhawaj maestro Pandit Taranathji of Farrukkhbad Gharana. After an extensive 'Taaleem' extending to six years, he won the President's award for standing First at the All India Radio competitions in 1963. He was also adjudged the most accomplished young Tabla player at the Inter-University Youth Festival, and was invited to join a Students' Cultural Delegation to Europe & the Middle-East. Sadanandji completed his scholastic education, securing a Bachelors Degree in Metallurgical Engineering with a First Class with Distinction, from Pune University.
Sadanandji is today, a "Top Grade" Tabla player of Akashwani and Doordarshan, and has participated with Distinction in several National Programmes & Sangeet Sammelans, as also in various Music conferences and festivals both in India & abroad. Besides being an ace Soloist, Sadanandji has accompanied most of the top vocalists and instrumentalists of the Land - a list of artists that would read like a musical "Who's-Who". Titles such as "Layanand", "Taal Martand", "Swar Sadhana Ratna", awarded by some elite Music Institutions, sit very lightly on his shoulders.
Today, Sadanandji is as much sought after, for his thought-provoking & educational workshops and Lecture-Demonstrations on Tabla, as he is for his profound & monumental Tabla solos in diverse Taals. Sadanandji, like his Guru Taranathji, has cultivated the ability to create new compositions & Taals and demonstrate them ably in the course of his Solo Recitals. He has also participated & conducted "Taal Vadya Kacheri" concerts, involving leading percussionists of Carnatic and Hindustani traditions and Western Drummers. He has entitled his concept of the above quoted Concert Composition as "Laya Taal Samvaad", in which, besides the Classical Percussion Instruments, he incorporates Folk instruments like Dholki, Dholak, Ghumat, Samel etc.