Skip to content Skip to navigation

Minoti Khaund and Sunita Bhuyan Violin recital Tour UK 2008

Minoti Khaund: The evergreen violinist of 70's musical world of Assam, she is undoubtedly one of the most popular violinist today and can equally be placed among the best. With her disarming smile and charming manner, the bespectacled Minoti Khaund exudes a comfortable air: music, she says takes her closet to divinity and accords her peace and tranquility. It is an invigorating experience which exalts her spirits.

Born in a well to do Phukan paribar of Jorhat. Her father Manik Chandra Phukan and mother Nalini Debi. She was raised in a culturally rich atmosphere. Her maternal grandfather: Bisheswar Sharma, well-known Tea planter and a culturally gharana of Jorhat. Being a connoisseur of the fine arts himself encouraged Minoti and bought her a violin. So, she started to play at a tender age of 10.

Minoti had her early training in violin from Shri Indreswar Sarma of Jorhat, in the music school of late Darpanath Sarma. She performed in several concerts and festivals and the turning point in her life came when she was performing at the All Assam Music Conference in 1972 and violin maestro Pt. V.G.Jog heard her on stage and offered to impart his art to Minoti. Her husband Kabindra Ram Khaund and the daughter in law of Deputy Commissioner Rabindra Ram Khaund a traditional family of Assam supported her and started her apprenticeship under Pt .Jog. Thereafter started the traditional Gururshisya Parampara between Minoti and Padmavibhusahan Pt Jog.

The Rising Talent Conference at Kalamandir Calcutta in 1978 introduced Minoti as a talented artiste. There has been no looking back since then. The Amir Khan Music Conference at Rabindra Sadan Calcutta, Benaras, Burdwan, Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar, Tatanagar, Rabindra Natya Mandir mumbai, India International Center Delhi, Mehta Memorial Hall Allahabad, IIT Festival, Shankardev Kalakshetra Guwahati, National Gallery of Modern Art Mumbai, India Habitat Centre Delhi, Women's International Forum Goa, Madhusudhan Manch Kolkatta etc were the platforms that Minoti performed in and enthralled the audience and press alike. She became the foremost violinist of Assam. She was conferred the title of Sangeet Jyoti.

Minoti started her parallel studies in the field of music and attained Sangeet Nipune from Prayag Sangeet Samitti, Allahabad, in 1986, bagging a gold medal for her Sangeet Visharad. During this period she also got associated with vocalist Pt. A.T, Kanan of the Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkatta and imbibed the "gayaki ang" in her style. She also underwent music studies in the field of raga improvisations and rhythmic patterns of "tala" from sarod maestro and musicologist Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta.

Sunita Bhuyan
is a violinist of the Hindustani style and has carved a niche for herself as an upcoming musician of India. Recepient of the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini award for Music. She was initiated into musicat a tender age by her mother Minoti Khaund. The mother daughter duo of Minoti and Sunita have performed duets all over the country and abroad, regaling the audience and the press alike with their "jugalbandi". What makes her great is: selection of her tune, her style of presentation and she stried to give a semi-classical touch which has a blend of folk western classical.

Sunita has attained a master's degree in Hindustani Music from Prayag Sangeet Samitte, with a distinction and has also studied advanced music under the apprenticeship of violin maestro Padmabibhushan Late Pt V.G. Jog.

Minoti Khaund, the award winning violin master whose musical career spanning 50 years. She has been awarded the prestigious Silpi Bata this year by Govt. of Assam.

A violin recital by Minoti Khaund and her daughter Sunita Bhuyan are on an exclusive UK tour at the prestigious Nehru Centre (the Cultural wing of Indian High Commission) on 26th June and other British cities: Manchester: Kalapremi mandal, Birmingham and Nottingham organized by Rini Kakati, NRI Co-ordinator for UK.

Also the Glasgow concert is organized by Mrs. Anima Sharma, an active member of Lancashire Hindu Association.

-- Rini Kakati

Comments

charlie, kharghuli's picture

After bhupen hazarika we really feel proud to introduce as assamese women vionalist going to perform aboard .
sunita , rumki's picture

On behalf of my mother: thank you charlie I know all of you are my well wishers always Minoti khuri

Pages

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

Security forces seized a huge quantity of ganja, weighing more than 80 kgs from the Guwahati Railway station on Saturday. Patrolling railway police personnel recovered ten packets of the contraband, worth Rs 3 lakh, from a compartment of the Alipurduar-Mariani Passenger train. In another incident, police recovered 16 packets of ganja, worth about Rs six lakhs, from the guards room of the railway station and took into custody the Guardsman Chandiram Bodo.
BJP and All India United Democratic Front have slammed the Union Budget 2012-13 a day after it was presented by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament on Friday. Talking to reporters, BJP MP Ramen Deka said that the Centre should declare a separate time zone for the northeast for increasing the pace of development and work efficiency in the region. Party MP Romen Deka raised the issue of a separate time zone for the northeast under rule 377 on March 14. Deka told a press conference here on Saturday that there was nothing significant for the northeast in the budget and the increase in taxes would cause problems to the common people.
AIUDF president caterogically termed the Union Budget as anti-poor. Talking to reporters on Saturday, he said that the new taxes were going to hurt the common people. He said that the budget has nothing for the common people, and the poor are going to be hit hard. According to him, at a time when the Brahmaputra was creating havoc in the form of floods and erosion, there was a high expectation in Assam Assam that the finance minister would come out with special measures for the state. He further said that even President Pratibha Patil's address had no mention of flood and erosion problem.
The much-hyped NRC update process is expected to begin from July. The exercise is set to take place in two in three phase from Sadiya. This was disclosed during a meeting of the ministerial panel and some organizations including AASU. Panel head Prithvi Majhi who chaired the meeting admitted the major demands raised by these orgasnizations. The NRC update forms would have birth place. The update is set to take place from Sadiya in three phases.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has stressed poverty alleviation with gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. Addressing the General Body meeting of the Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission Society on Saturday, Gogoi said that importance would be on providing them access to credit, marketing and other livelihood services to facilitate their upward mobility. He said that ASRLMS would implement the NRLM, the redesigned and restructured programme of Swarnajayanti Gram Swaroajgar Yojana (SGSY) to bail out the rural BPL families. Union Rural Development Ministry's Joint Secretary T Vijay Kumar called for focused attention on building grassroots capacity to...
The Kaziranga National park got more forest camps. The forest camp inside the abode of one horn rhino has gone up to 152. The camps would be manned by 6 to 7 guards each of whom will be armed with sophisticated weapons. Moreover, 170 armed security guards have been deployed inside the national park, a world heritage site, along with personnel from Assam Forest Protection Force.
Local residents in Jakhalabandha town held 75 suspected Bangladeshi immigrants on Saturday after they arrived in the railway station from Dhubri. The suspected Bangladeshi nationals were coming from Dhubri by the Dhubri-Silghat passenger express which reached Jakhalabandha station in the morning. When asked, they failed to submit any valid document and later admitted that they were on their way to Kuthori near the Kaziranga National Park. Sixty members of the group, including a female have been detained at the Jakhalabandha police station. Fifteen others have been released.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday seemed not happy with the Union budget tabled in Parliament on Friday. Talking to reporters in Guwahati on Saturday, Gogo said that there is no such major announcement for the state. But he was in a fix when the media people repeatedly asked him how the UPA government has virtually donwplayed the interest of Assam. The rail budget is not an exception.
Day long screening of award-winning Assamese Films, organized by Assam association Delhi in association with enajori.com and Pooberun. All are invited. Date: Sunday, the 18th March 2012 from 11.00hrs to 19.00hrs Venue: Srimanta Sankardeva Bhawan, New Delhi List of Feature Films : 1. Firingoti (The Spark) : Directed by Jahnu Baruah. 2. Laaz (Shame) : Directed by Manju Borah 3. Tora (Tora's Love) : Directed by Jahnu Baruah. List of Short Films and Documentaries 4. Divided Soul : Directed by Dip Bhuyan 5. Their Story : Directed by Reema Borah 6. Seventy-Five Years of Assamese Cinema : Directed by Prabin Hazarika. For details please call: 26537786,...
Police arrested notorious drug kingpin Elahi Sheikh from his residence in the Chandmari area of Guwahati on Friday. Acting on a tip-off, police raided Sheikh's house and caught him along with a huge consignment of drugs. Police claimed to have found brown sugar weighing over 1 kg in his possession. Two drug peddlers - Bhutu Ali and Nazir Ali - were also arrested along with him. Sheikh, who is considered the kingpin of the racket in the entire upper Assam region, parts of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, has been escaping police.