Nephew Anant to sing with Pt Umakant Gundecha

BHOPAL: The Gundechas announced on Saturday that late Pt Ramakant Gundecha’s son Anant will now sing alongside Pt Umakant Gundecha to keep the Dhrupad jugalbandi alive.
Akhilesh Gundecha, a cousin of the maestros, told TOI that Anant, 22, began learning Dhrupad from his father and uncle at 11. He also used to take classes at Dhrupad Sansthan and held stage performances.
“There is no one more suited to take Ramakant bhai’s place than his son, Anant.He has been learning Dhrupad for over a decade and is a brilliant stage performer. He has given performances in the US and in other cities of India, but now he will sing with his uncle to keep his father’s memory alive,” said Akhilesh.
The first performance of uncle-nephew Gundecha Bandhu will be at Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan in Jalandhar in December, and the next one is at the Saptak Music Festival in Ahmedabad in January. “For the next 13 days, we won’t be going anywhere and will tell all the organisers who had invited us about the demise of Ramakant ji. We will also inform them well in advance that his son will sing alongside Umakant bhai. We are pretty sure that none of the organisers will object to it,” he added.