Arvind Parikh

Early life

Arvind parikh was born in Ahmedabad into a Gujrati Business Family with cultural and spiritual influences. His father was a businessman and mother was a painter. His primary and secondary education continued in a nationalist school. At home he was taught Indian music by musicians when he used to play several instruments like dilruba, violin, mandolin, jaltarang and flute. Later he started sitar, which he found suited him best. In 1944, at the age of 17, he moved to Mumbai and started learning from sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan. Per Khan's wish Parikh entered Bombay University, along with the music education from Khan. Parikh got admission in Elphinstone College, Bombay. His musical education continued uninterrupted throughout his performing career, from 1944 to 2004 until Khan's death.

Music career

Arvind Parikh is having a performing career spanning over six decades. Association with different learned musicians and vocalists helped him in his research work on different rare ragas and compositions. B. R. Deodhar, Latafat Hussain Khan, Amir Khan, Niyaz Ahmad-Faiyaz Ahmad Khan, D. T. Joshi, Radhika Mohan Maitra need special mention here. He has performed in India and abroad. He has been featured at almost all major music festivals in India and Europe, and has had very successful concert tours in several parts of West Asia, Far East and Australia. Parikh is a regular broadcaster on All India Radio. His approach towards music, collection of authentic bandishes (compositions), and approach of teaching were praised. Parikh has numerous students internationally including musicologist Deepak Raja, music director Tushar Bhatia, sitarists Rafat Khan Niyazi, Vinayak Chitter, Ramprapanna Bhattacharya, Abhik Mukherjee, Ganesh Mohan, and more. His daughter Purvi Parikh is also a classical vocalist and learnt music from many greats including her parents. Mrs. Parikh was disciple of Niyaz Ahmad-Faiyaz Ahmad Khan of Kirana Gharana. Parikh has documented most of the precious compositions and ragas. "Sitar Guru", "Bandish Parampara" published by Navras records UK are some of the testimonies of his work.

Cultural ambassador

Parikh worked as musicologist, teacher, cultural ambassador, and promoted initiatives aimed at increasing interest in Hindustani classical music n India and abroad. He was vice president of the International Music Council (UNESCO) during 1994-97 and is currently co-ordinator for the Indian sub-continent. He is President of the Indian Musicological Society, chairman of the Western India Chapter of ITC-Sangeet Research Academy. Parikh conceived establishing a forum at which all segments of the music world could meet to discuss issues of common interests. Music forums are established in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. He is currently spearheading an association of 12 classical musicians, called All India Musicians’ Group (AIMG) - drawn from the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions (including Zakir Hussain, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Ravi Kiran, Rajan and Sajan Mishra), to create greater support in government, industry and the media for Indian classical music.

Awards and recognition

Parikh has been awarded the Gaurav Puraskar for the year 1997-98 by the Gujarat State Sangeet Natak Academy. He has also been awarded the National Award by Sangeet Natak Akademi for Instrumental music (sitar) for the year 2003. He is a top grade artist and a regular broadcaster of All India Radio.

Industrialist

Parikh has handled the pursuits of business and music simultaneously. Parikh's business is a logistics provider in 51 Indian cities. Its latest joint venture with Deutsche Post and DHL as DHL Lemuir Logistics Pvt. Ltd. He is chairman of an Indian transportation organization and director of a travel and tourism company, and his family owned group owns a company for printing accessories.