Deobrat Mishra

Deobrat Mishra & Pandit Shivnath Mishra

Deobrat Mishra is one of India’s premiere and promising young sitar artists. When he was born his father sang the Indian musical scales to him and at the age of five, he began teaching him sitar. He learned tabla from his mother. At age six he gave his first performance, and at age 11 performed for his first time on All India Radio. He was chosen by the Indian government to receive the award of Best Young Sitarist in India. He recently received the Jewel of Sound Award, India’s equivalent of the Grammy, for his sitar playing.

Pandit Shivnath Mishra (Deobrat's father) and his family have descended from a prominent musical lineage of Benaras Gharana going back several generations. In order to preserve this heritage, so precious to India, and make it accessable to children, Pt. Mishra and his family decided to create the “Benaras Gharana Baccha (Children’s) Project.

Browse titles from Mishra

Gharana Musical Tradition

Gharana is a traditional style and way of teaching and performing Indian classical music. This style is many hundreds of years old and has been passed from master to student, from generation to generation. There are many Gharanas or styles, one of the most prominent ones being the Benaras Gharana. It is also called Varanasi Gharana. Over the years, the Benaras Gharana has produced many outstanding vocal, instrumental and dance performers. Like many traditions, this method of performing music and the great Indian cultural heritage, in general, have been threatened due to the lack of dedicated teachers and students.

Master Musician

Pandit Shivnath Mishra is one of the most respected sitar masters in India (Panditmeans master musician). He is a master teacher and is Lecturer and Head of the Music Department at the Sanskrit University of Benares.

He was born into a well-known musical family in the Benares Gharana(ancestral lineage) and at five years old he began studying vocal music with his father Badar Prasad Mishra. When he was eight years old he began studying sitar with his uncle. In a family of many fine classical Indian vocalists, he is the first to master the sitar, playing it in Thumaristyle, characterized be a strong emphasis on melody and deep emotion. He is well known on All India Radio & Televisionand was a gold medal winner in the All India Music Conferencein Calcutta.

Pandit Shivnath Mishra and his family have descended from a prominent musical lineage of Benaras Gharana going back several generations. In order to preserve this heritage, so precious to India, and make it accessable to children, Pt. Mishra and his family decided to create the “Benaras Gharana Baccha (Children’s) Project.

Pandit Shivnath Mishra and his family have descended from a prominent musical lineage of Benaras Gharana going back several generations. In order to preserve this heritage, so precious to India, and make it accessable to children, Pt. Mishra and his family decided to create the “Benaras Gharana Baccha (Children’s) Project.

Benaras Gharana Baccha (Children) Project

The Guru (teacher)-Shishya (student) relationship which was the hallmark of this system is breaking down. If this tradition is not maintained, very soon it might exist only in textbooks. Pandit Shivnath Mishra and his family have descended from a highly talented musical lineage of Benaras Gharana going back several generations. In order to preserve this heritage, so precious to India, and make it accessible to children, Pt. Mishra and his family decided to create the Benaras Gharana Baccha ( The Children's Project).

The aim of the Academy is to:
1. Establish a school for the teaching of Indian Classical music in the traditional Benaras Gharana style;
2. Provide scholarships to children to assist them in their learning of this musical style;
3. Create opportunities for students and young artists to develop their potential through study and

performance;
4. Provide right livelihood for qualified and dedicated teachers.

For this purpose, the Mishra family purchased land in Benares on which to build a residential music school. The construction of the building took around three years to be completed and now the Academy is a well-structured place to receive students from all over the world.

Learn more here.