Anant Lal Biography 
Anant Lal was a shehnai exponent and teacher who lived in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He was born into a traditional musical family, which played Shehnai for more than 200 years. He was initiated into his traditional world of shehnai by his father, Pandit Mithai Lal and then studies carried forward by his uncles. Lal was also an expert of bamboo flute, known as the bansuri in Indian names. Daya Shankar, shehnai player Ashok Kumar and flautist Vijay Kumar are his sons who carried forward his tradition of music. Lal received the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984 and was honoured with a national Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1989. Lal died on 3 March 2011, aged 84, from a heart attack.
Lal was born in Varanasi in the year 1921. He was initiated to music at the age of 9. After receiving initial training from his father and his uncles, he became a disciple of thumri vocal teacher Pandit Mahadev Prasad Mishra of Varanasi. He was inspired a lot by master musician Bismillah Khan and decided to dedicate his life to Shehnai in Hindustani classical music. He became a staff artist for All India Radio, where he worked till 1987. He has got opportunity to perform aside Ravi Shankar and Debu Chaudhuri. In 1974, Ravi Shankar chose Lal to join his Music Festival from India revue to perform in Europe. He has also recorded a studio album with Shankar and has collaborated with George Harrison's Dark Horse Records in 1976.
He has accompanied leading voices of Indian classical music like Alla Rakha, Lakshmi Shankar, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Sultan Khan and L. Subramaniam. ‘Splendour in Shehnai’ released in 1990 is his solo recording.
Published: N/A
Updated: February 18, 2014
