Nagaraj Hegde


NAGARAJ  HEGDE

HINDUSTHANI  CLASSICAL  FLUTIST


 Nagaraj Hegde was born in a music loving family in 1974. During his college days he was attracted to hindusthani classical music, particularly the flute/bansuri. He continued his education along with flute learning. He has M.Sc. (Agri.) in Horticulture with gold medal from University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, to his credit. He had been selected and appointed for the post of agril.field officer by a premiere Indian public sector bank. Nagaraj resigned from the bank within a very short period and afterwards committed himself for music/flute. A brief account of his musical personality is as follows:


Gurus for music/flute:

Iinitial training by late Shri T.V.Chauvan of Dharwad.

Learnt for about 14 years, under the able guidance of late Pt. Venkatesh Godkhindi, one of the   eminent and acclaimed flutists and also a vocalist. 

Fortunate to receive guidance for sometime from world known sitar Maestro, Padmashree, Ustad Shahid Pervez Khan.

Achievements:

First rank to the state in non-percussion instrumental section in the exam conducted by Karnataka Sangeeta Nritya Academy, for junior category in1995.

An 'A' graded flutist of All India Radio and Dooradarshan in hindusthani classical instrumental section.

First rank to all India in ‘Sangeet Alankaar’ exam conducted by Akhila Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal, in 2012.


Performances:

Solo flute concerts  in many cities like Bangalore, Hubli, Dharwad, Mangalore, Kolhapur, Madagaon, Calicut, …. etc.

Performed at Pt.Basavaraj Rajguru smruti sangeet sammelan, Hasanagi, in 2006.

Performed at 7th Padmabhushan Mogubai Kurdikar smruti sangeet sammelan in 2008, Madagoan, Goa.
  
Participated and performed successfully at the 6th AKKA sammelan, held in New Jersey, U.S.A., in September 2010.

Performed in 'Karaavali Utsav' in 2013, at Karwar and in 2016, in Mangalore.

Performed in 16th  biennial convention of HAA at Washington  D.C., in July 2015.

Solo concerts in Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne and in many cities of U.S.A.

Performed in 'Hampi Utsav', at Hampi in 2017.

Performed in 'Pt. Kumar Gandharva Smruthi Sangeet Sammelan' at Belagavi in 2018. 

Performed in Sydney and Melbourne in 2018.


Performance highlights:

His playing is mainly based on the gaayaki style of Kirana gharana 

Systematic expansion of raag with extreme tunefulness .

Variety of taans and layakaaris. 


Teaching:

He has been teaching to interested and talented students for more than 20 years. 

He has established 'Gokula Bansuri Gurukul' at his native. Gokula, the bansuri gurukul, is for training interested and talented students the art of bansuri playing, in the traditional gurukul style, without any fees.

He is also teaching online, through Skype, to students from  different countries like USA, Canada and Australia. 


Has been conducting workshops for imparting training to interested students.