An Interview with Nikhil BanerjeeNikhil Banerjee (1931 – 1986) was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar Gharana who played the stringed instrument sitar. Nikhil Banerjee was 16 years old when Allauddin Khan accepted him as a disciple, inviting the young sitarist to live with him in the time-honored Indian guru-disciple tradition. Allauddin Khan's influence on Nikhil Banerjee was profound. The sitarist modeled his life in many ways on his guru, having little interest in wealth and luxury. Nikhil Banerjee later said that his whole life, as well as his attitude toward music was changed by Allauddin Khan: "He had a strong antipathy toward anything narrow in the sphere of teaching. He was a teacher incarnate with the purest vibration. Any student, if really deserving, had from him the shower of his blessings, and by the sheer touch of his genius felt quite transformed. I consider him as really incomparable." -Martin Clayton, Professor of Music ...says, "Acknowledging influences, Nikhil Banerjee never appropriated specific musical ideas. His ability to synthesize the finer qualities of these diverse styles to create his own voice, along with his genius and great critical understanding of the music and his instrument made his performances among the most masterful of his era. Technique was never a goal in and of itself but was used as a necessary tool, developed to express the content and essence of the music." "Thanks to his own innovations, Nikhil Banerjee was able to play with breathtaking speed and power without compromising tone and clarity. Both his command of Raga and his rhythmic ingenuity were beyond question, but the feature which really marked him out was the ability to transform into musical sound moods of love, pathos, and even fury, speaking directly to the heart of the listener." ----------
