Bio
Born in Udaipur, Rajasthan
Brij Narayan, the eldest son and disciple of the world-renowned Sarangi maestro Pandit Ram Narayan, is one of the greatest and world-renowned sarod players, born in Udaipur, Rajasthan in 1952
Taalim
Brij Narayan became greatly fascinated by the sound of the Sarod and took initial lessons of handling the instrument from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, however, he began his musical training soon after under his father and guru Pandit Ram Narayan whose powerful musicality and adaptability to a wide range of 'gharanas', provided him the tools to develop his own original style. Another feature of his father's training is the method of 'Raag vistaar' and deep insight into the theory of traditional performance methods. Thus Brij Narayan has fully embraced the traditional system and is able to express his music with the confidence and mastery that comes from sound training.
Concerts since 1971
He has been performing on the concert stage since 1971. Over the years he has appeared in numerous International music festivals all over India and abroad. Some other prominent universities in which he has given lecture demonstrations for propagating our rich Indian music at are the Pittsburgh Univ. Cornell Univ., Pennsylvania Univ., Univ. of Oklahoma, Chicago and continues to do so. He has also performed extensively in Europe and Australia.
1967 Received Presidents Gold Medal for the 1st place in All India Radio Music Competition
1968 A film was made by director Dinkar Rao titled ‘Magic in Fingers’ for Films Division
1969 Concert tour of Afghanistan as a delegate along with his father Pt. Ram Narayan.
1968-1971 Scholar of ‘Bharat Sangeet Sabha’
1970 Concerts in Germany and France & Concert tour of Africa
1971 Concert tour of Europe for performance
1972 Invited for the celebrations of Munich Olympic and then a long tour giving 60 concerts
1974-75 Two concerts giving lectures Demonstrations and performances to propagate Indian music (Sarod), to schools and universities of France (Along with c his father Pandit Ram Narayan).
1975 Concert at Murseed Art Modern de la villa of Paris
1978 Concert at Musee National Marc Chagall (Nice) festival of Lille.
1980 Tour on Moyen-Orient (France).
1984-85 3 months tour of Canada & Australia/ Concert from BBC London.
1986 Festival of Etampes
1987 - Festival of lndia & Suisse: Geneve ; WOMAD festival,
Glastonbury, Grande Bretagne ; Tour of France, Angleterre of India.
1987 Concert from Radio France at the theatre of Rond-Point.
1987 Festival of India in USSR/ Tour of Sweden
1988 Composed Music for the film The Bengali Night directed by famous internationally known film director Nicholas Klotz.
1988 Tour of U.S.A. Tour of Britain
1996 Received the Dagar Gharana Award by Mewad Foundation and Kumar Gandharva Rashtriya Sanman
1998 Performed in prestigious festivals of USA. Also performed at the Smith Sonanian Institute of Washington.
2002 Performed in the University of Pennsylvania and gave lecture/ demonstration on Indian music and gave instructions to the students of music.
2007 Concert tour of Canada and USA giving lecture demonstration and teaching in Pittsburg University, Cornhill University. Performed for Performing Arts Centre: Dominican University in Chicago
2009-2012 Chairman of Akal University in Himachal Pradesh where students are being trained in various instruments: Sarod, Sarangi, Dilruba, Rabab and Sitar. Some of the students of Pandit Brij Narayan have already started performing
2009 Received the Sudhanshu Award presented by the Keli festival group in Mumbai.
2010 and 2011 Performed in some of the prestigious festivals of Delhi. The last one being The Punjabi Academy at Kamani Auditorium.
2012 Received the Marwar Sangeet Ratna Award by His Highness Gaj Singh ji
2013 Performance in France & recorded for archives.
2014 Performance in Paris Theater of Blanc Mesnil
2015 Received the ‘Shresht Kala Shiromani and Swar Samman’
2016 Received the ‘Sangeet Natak Academi Award 2015’ by Hon’able President Pranab Mukharjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi
Commercial Recordings
Panditji has recorded several CDs and LPs which include 15 Compaq discs and 4 long playing records all of which have been very well appreciated by musicians and connoisseurs alike.Panditji has recorded several CDs and LPs which include 15 Compaq discs and 4 long playing records all of which have been very well appreciated by musicians and connoisseurs alike.
Musical contribution to the Gen-Next by "Training in the Traditional Way"
Pandit Brij Narayan is an enthusiastic educator. He was the principal teacher in Akal Academy in Badu Saheb in Himachal Pradesh for several years and has trained about 40 students in that institution alone. The teaching program designed by him involved a traditional approach towards the study of classical instruments. He is also actively training young students in Mumbai who study the sarod, rabab and sitar under him. A number of foreign students also receive trainings under him.