Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Road Raga

Indian classical music links sound and spirituality, and students respect instrument teachers as holy lineage holders — even when said teachers are also their ’rents. (Witness Anoushka and Ravi Shankar.) Two of the leading father-son teams performing the Hindustani-style classical music of northern India offer aural examples of this venerable guru-disciple tradition. Sitar maestro Partha Chatterjee supports his son Purbayan (pictured), a 25-year international performer who started following in his dad’s footsteps at the tender age of 5. Accompanying the Chatterjees is a pair of percussionists unrelated to them, but bearing the same last name: Tabla master Anindo Chatterjee and his son Anubrata. UVM’s Friends of Indian Music and Dance host the time-tested quartet on a U.S. route that also includes a May gig at the Smithsonian.