Ajay Pohankar Biography 
Ajay Pohankar is an Indian classical vocalist who is verse in Kirana Gharana of Hindustani classical music. His sister, Swati Natekar, is also a singer based in London, and his niece Aaditi Pohankar is a film actress. His son Abhijit Pohankar, a keyboard player of Indian classical music earned fame in fusion music. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in the year 2012 and also Tansen Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2009. In a career spanning to 5 decades, his contribution to Hindustani music is immensely huge.
Pohankar hails from a cultured family in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. He was born in 1947 to a lawyer. His mother was a vocalist, from whom Pohankar took his formal music lessons. His sister too is a classical singer. At the age of 11, young Ajay was invited to perform at the prestigious Sawai Gandharva Music Festival in Pune. It was one of the memorable moments of his professional career, when the legend Pandit Bhimsen Joshi called him to stage and made him sing. Ajay Pohankar is married to Anjali, a vocalist and musicologist, and their son Abhijit Pohankar too into the musical field. Ajay loves singing Khayals, and his favourite genre in Hindustani music is Sankirtan.
Ajay Pohankar started attending cultural events and musical festivals at a young age, and got privilege to perform aside some of the doyens of Indian classical music such as Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Amir Khan, Gangubai Hangal, Pandit Ravi Shankar etc. One of the most reverted musicians of today, he is a recipient of multiple honours including Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Surmani from Maharashtra Government, Narayan Samman, Swarna Parikrama from Government of Karnataka, Sangeeta Praveeram in Pune at the age of 9 etc. He is also an academician, who holds Master’s degree in English and Music and has taught at Bombay University.
Published: N/A
Updated: May 12, 2018
