Anand Thakore

[1][2] He received training in Hindustani vocal music for many years from Satyasheel Deshpande and Pandit Baban Haldankar of the Agra Gharana.

While learning music he simultaneously developed a passion for English literature and various Indian languages: Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Braj Bhasha.

He has read work at major literary festivals[6] Post-Colonial critic Bruce King points out in World Literature Today ( Vol.

[8] "From a child who grew up partly in England writing prose, Thakore evolved into a teenager who explored Braj lyrics, which he had to sing as a student of music.

His love for poetry took him to literary greats who lived in Mumbai such as Adil Jussawalla, Dom Moraes and Gieve Patel who guided him through the jungle of words.

The verse of Waking in December, Thakore's first book shows a reverence for definite form and an interest in classical structures like the sonnet and the villanelle,[9] exemplified in poems like Chandri Villa[10] or What I can Get away with.

In 2006 he received a Charles Wallace India Trust[12] grant for an experimental music-poetry collaboration in the UK with composer and guitarist Pete Wyer.

Anand Thakore was judge and a co-editor for the first Montreal International Poetry Prize (2011) with Valerie Bloom, Fred D'Aguiar, John Kinsella and Stephanie Bolster, amongst others.

When the family moved to England for a period, he studied rudimentary western musical theory, and violin and sang soprano in the Solihull Chapel Choir.

This Taleem (training) familiarized him with a large number of Agra-Gharana compositions and various aspects of the Agra tradition: Bol-alaap, Nom-tom alaap and Layakari.

Kshitij was founded in collaboration with vocalists Sanjeev Chimmalgi, Kedar Bodas, Krishna Bhat and Tabla accompanist Rupak Kharvandikar.

In 2006 he received a grant from the Charles Wallace India Trust to work on a collaborative experimental project with British composer and jazz-guitarist Pete Wyer.

The CD features a live 'mehfil' in Mumbai with ragas Multani, Tilak Kamod, Darbari and Malkauns and is distributed by Underscore Records Pvt.