Delhi has always been an outstanding musical platform. Currently it’s echoing with the sounds of ragas as the Spic Macay's Virasat and Samrat's international festival of music has been organized there.

Spic Macay has been organizing the Virasat series every twelve months, bringing forth classical music, dance, theatre, folk arts, and film classics at all educational institutions, in an attempt to take our rich heritage closer to the youth of the time. This year the festival has been dedicated to the late Ustad Bismillah Khan. Another high point is the 1700 events to be held across the country spread over a period between September to December. This year’s event has been named Virasat-2006 and was inaugurated at the Vice Regal Lodge, Delhi University. Virasat-2006 commenced with a Bharatanatyam dance recital by Sonal Mansingh who has specially conceived the music and dance performance for the purpose. Enthralling flute piece by Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia followed this and he lighted the event playing Yaman raga. He played Jaijaivanti next, reciting the famous composition ‘Paiyaan paroongi palanga na chadhoongi’ set in Teen tala, immortalized by Ustad Faiyaz Khan of the Agra gharana. Sunil Avachat on the flute and Vijay Ghate on the tabla, who are his disciples, supported him ably.

Samrat's two-day International Festival of Indian Classical Music was also inaugurated in Delhi as ‘a bond of cultural friendship among the people of the world’. The event will also be organized in Mumbai, Goa, Banglore, London, and New York. The festival was held at Kamani auditorium. Saskia Rao de Haas from Netherlands opened the fest with raga Maru Bihag. She began her training from her husband Shubhendra Rao who has been a disciple of Pandit Ravishankar belonging to the Maihar Senia gharana style. Her rearing in Indian classical music was further groomed by Vidushi Sumati Mutatkar and Deepak Chaudhury. She played compositions in Jhap tala, Teen tala and Shivaranjani.

  The first evening reverberated with the vocal recitals of Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar who appealed with his ragas like Nat Bihag’s ‘Jhan jhan jhan jhan’, Nayaki Kanhara, Sohani and Bhairavi’s ‘Jamuna ke teer’. Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar is trained in the Gwaliar, Jaipur and Agra gharanas and his gayaki generally follows three styles, blended with subtle nuances. His rendition left the audience in a nostalgic state of mind. The next day Sunanda Sharma offered vilambit and drut khayals in raga Madhuvanti, followed by tappa (Kafi) and thumri (Khamaj). The attraction of the festival was the outstanding old bandishes in Yaman Kalyan raga played melodiously on the sitar by Ustad Shujaat Khan. Shuddha Madhyam’s renditions of the mukhara in a distinct style made this an extraordinary affair.