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Sushri Hetal Mehta Joshi

Hetal Mehta Joshi is the daughter of well known tabla player Pt. Nandan Mehta & sitarist Manju Mehta. Born into a family of eminent musicians, Hetal has learnt the Tabla from a very young age from her father Shri Nandan Mehta, senior most disciple of Padma Vibhushan Pt.Kishan Maharaj, the illustrious Tabla maestro of the Benaras Gharana from Gujarat. She has also had the opportunity of occasionally taking guidance from the legendary doyen of the Banaras Gharana Padma-Vibhushan Pt.Kishan Maharaj as well as his son Pt.Puran Maharaj. Having had the opportunity of minutely observing the various nuances of Tabla playing from various maestros performing at the prestigious Saptak annual festivals over the last 20 years, Hetal has developed a refined sense for the art of Tabla playing and has matured into a very fine soloist as well as accompanist. This is reflected in her very refined style of playing Banaras style of Tabla which is rich in Gat ' Fard, tukdas and punjabi or Lahori gats, which are the distinguishing features of Banaras Baaj.

She has performed at various concerts in major cities of India i.e All over Gujarat, Mumbai, Jaipur, Bhopal, Delhi, Gwalior, Kurukshetra, Kolkata, Pune etc..for reputed organisations of those cities. She has won the First Prize in All India Radio Music Competition held in 1998, and has won the Shri Vishwanath Dev Sharma Classical Music award competition ' 1998 and has given solo performance & accompaniments in New York in November 1999 for that organisation.

It was Padmavibhushan Pt.Kishan Maharaj's way of recognising her talent that he blessed her by asking her to be a co-accompanist in the Saptak concert of Sitar maestro Pt. Monilal Nag and Ms. Mita Nag. Such exposure has groomed her not just as an accomplished solo player but a recognised accompanist.

She has accompanied veterans like Padma Vibhushan Pandit Jasraj, Padmashree Ustad Sultan Khan, Padma Vibhushan Pt.Rajan Sajan Mishra, Padmashree Pt.Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and many other young upcoming artists of our country. She is an A grade artist of Akashwani and Doordarshan.

To add to this, Hetal is also a double graduate in English literature and B.ED from Gujarat University. Presently she is the trustee of Saptak School of Music, Ahmedabad where she also teaches Tabla to senior disciples. She is one of the faculty members (lecturer of tabla) at the Upasana School of Performing Arts, Gujarat University.

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Pt. NANDAN MEHTA SHASTRIYA TAAL-VADYA SPARDHA