Sitar player and music producer Rishabh Rihiram Sharma will bring his ‘Sitar for Mental Health’ tour to Bengaluru on Sunday.
The 90-minute performance will include evening ragas as well as some popular regional, folk and film songs. “In Jaipur, we played ‘Kesariya Balram’ and in Chennai, we played a medley of AR Rahman songs. In Mumbai, we played some Bollywood songs,” he says. In Bangalore, Sharma will perform nationally popular film numbers such as ‘Zara Zara’, ‘Saathiya’ and ‘Jiya Jale’.
Sharma is the youngest and last disciple of sitar legend Pandit Ravi Shankar. “When it comes to ragas, you don’t just have to play them at specific times, you also have to play them gently so that you can be introspective. and some unreleased songs,” he added.
Sharma, a mental health advocate himself, calls ‘raga chikitsa’ (raga therapy) “something that has been around for centuries.” He believes it plays an important role in mental health. “I realized this during my own struggle with losing my grandfather during the pandemic. “I went through depression and had anxiety attacks. I went to therapy and found music soothing. “I rediscovered my power,” he says.
During therapy sessions in 2021, he was advised on coping strategies, including exercising and returning to playing the sitar. “I realized how powerful this instrument was. Classical music is meditative and I wanted to offer that experience to people while treating it as my own outlet. , I started sharing my music on social media platforms like Clubhouse and Instagram,” he says.
He took part in this tour last year, which took him around the world, including the United States, Canada, and South America. He also performed multiple shows in India. Sharma added that his ultimate goal is to make people aware of the importance of mental health. The sitar player is accompanied by Raghuraman R (guitar) and Prashant Trivedi (tabla).
Sitar for Mental Health, March 31, 7pm at Prestige Srihari Kodei Performing Arts Center, Konanakunte.online tickets
