Young Shadaj Iyer puts the rare Agra gayaki in the spotlight

Delhi has long been an active centre for cultural activities, with music, dance and theatre festivals through the year. The Morning Raga series is one such event that shows the city’s continued engagement with the arts. A concert at the Habitat Centre, Delhi, as part of the Morning Ragas Series, organised by ITC SRA and Habitat Centre, featured 23-year-old Shadaj Iyer. His family hails from Kanchipuram, and he was born and brought up in Ahmedabad.

Shadaj specialises in the niche Agra-Attrauli gharana that has had relatively few exponents on the concert stage. He was drawn to this challenging gharana, known for its distinctive sound, when he was barely four. He began training under Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan when he was seven and began performing a few years later. He is currently training under vidushi Subhra Guha, at the ITC SRA, Kolkata.

The founders of the gharana trace their musical lineage to the descendants of Tansen. Over time, they settled in Agra and Attrauli, from which the gharana derives its name.