Sunaad's music flows through the great lineages of Hindustani classical music. Our gurus carry distinct streams of this vast river — from the Agra-Atrauli Gharana to the Dagar Bani — and their commitment to Sunaad is a clear endorsement of its mission.
Tara Kini is the founder and guiding force of Sunaad. She began training in Hindustani classical music at the age of nine under Shri Narayan Rao Patwardhan, continued under Smt. Meera Khirwadkar and the late Pt. Rama Rao Naik, and currently trains in Khayal under Smt. Lalith J. Rao and in Dhrupad under the Padmashree Gundecha Brothers.
Tara holds Master's degrees in Education and Agricultural Physics and a Visharad in Hindustani classical vocal music from the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. She taught Physics and Music at Mallya Aditi International School for 20 years, and is currently an independent consultant in Education and Music with institutions in Bangalore, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Ahmedabad. She is also an advisor to the Shankar Mahadevan Music Academy.
In 2005, Tara was music director for a new media performance produced by the Srishti School of Design at the ARS Electronica festival in Linz, Austria. She has also worked with filmmaker Shabnam Virmani in extensive research on the music and poetry of Kabir. As Sunaad's director, she has conceptualised and led over 80 shows that demystify classical music — the last three of which (Swar Katha Upanishad, Isha Rumi Beyond Form, and Mandukya Sant Vani) have been inspired and guided by Sri M, with Dhrupad music composed by the Gundecha Brothers.
Aditi Upadhya is a founding teacher of Sunaad and a disciple of the late Pt. Dinkar Kaikini — a grand gavaiyya of the Agra Gharana — and her mother Shashikala Kaikini, respected radio vocalist and Principal of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Music School in Bombay. Aditi received the Sangeet Visharad from the same school in 1982, trained in the traditional paramparic style under her father and guru.
She has also trained under Smt. Shobha Gurtu, celebrated for her mastery of Dadra, Thumri and Hori. Aditi frequently gives lecture demonstrations and workshops on Indian classical music for audiences ranging from novices to connoisseurs. Since 1995 she has been regularly called upon to speak at Bangalore's National Institute for Advanced Studies, and has taught Hindustani music at the Mallya Aditi International School.
Smt. Lalith J. Rao's introduction to Hindustani classical music came at the age of three, at a concert by the legendary Faiyaz Khan. Her first public concert was at the Bangalore Sangeet Sabha at age 12; at 14 she won the All India Classical Music competition in Mumbai and became the youngest participant at the Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan.
She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Communication Engineering, but at her husband's urging abandoned engineering to pursue music full time — receiving training from Pt. Dinkar Kaikini and Ustad Khadim Hussain Khan of the Agra Gharana. She is as adept at Khayal, Dhrupad, Dhamaar, Thumri, Tarana and Hori, and developed a unique style of rendering Taranas under her guru's guidance. She has performed in France, the UK, the USA and Canada, and is a top-grade artist of All India Radio. She also sang for the Ethno-Musicology Department of the University of Washington in Seattle to archive the music of her Gharana.
Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha are among India's foremost exponents of Dhrupad, recipients of the Padmashree. They received their training from Dhrupad maestros Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar of the legendary Dagar lineage. From 1981–85 they received the Madhya Pradesh Government Scholarship, and the National Fellowship from 1987–89. They were conferred the Ustad Allauddin Khan Fellowship (1993), the Sanskriti Award (1994), the Kumar Gandharva Award (1998), and the Dagar Gharana Award by the Mewar Foundation (2001).
They have recorded over 25 albums and been broadcast on television in the UK, USA, Germany, France and Japan. Their Gurukul in Bhopal — the Dhrupad Sansthan — is one of the foremost centres for Dhrupad learning in the country. It is here that Sunaad members have visited to learn compositions in the Dagar Bani that form the Dhrupad core of productions including Pratha, Swar Katha Upanishad, Isha Rumi and Mandukya Sant Vani. The Gundechas' ongoing commitment to Sunaad is widely seen as an endorsement of Sunaad's mission to modernise Dhrupad without cutting loose from its roots.
The last three major Sunaad productions — Swar Katha Upanishad, Isha Rumi Beyond Form, and Mandukya Sant Vani — have been inspired and guided by Sri M (Mumtaz Ali Khan), the renowned spiritual teacher, author and founder of the Satsang Foundation. Sri M's deep grounding in the Upanishadic tradition and Vedanta has shaped the philosophical framework of these productions, making them as much a spiritual transmission as a musical performance.
Beyond their own productions, Sunaad also supports the next generation of young classical musicians through the SaRe programme — a performance series at the Bangalore International Centre that presents emerging Dhrupad and Khayal artists in intimate, accessible concerts. SaRe has featured artists including Dhrupad vocalist Janhavi Phansalkar (Gundecha Gurukul), Nishant Panicker (Khayal, Agra tradition, NCPA scholarship recipient 2016–17), pakhawaj player Anuja Borude, and tabla player Shashibhushan Gurjar.