Pandit Bhimsen Joshi

Bhimsen Joshi gave his first concert when he was 19. At age 20 he made his first recording, a few light classical songs in Kannada and Hindi, and a few years later made his first classical recording. Within a few years of this he had become known as 'the flying musician of India', because he often took two flights a day to get to all his concerts.

Bhimsen Joshi has received numerous awards for his singing, notably the Padma Shree in 1972, the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1976, and the Padma Bhushan in 1985. He also earned his first platinum disc in 1986.

While Bhimsen Joshi is, like all modern Hindustani classical vocalists, a khyal singer, he also spent a year in Lucknow in the 1940s learning from the great thumri masters of the time. In fact, he has said that singing a thumri well is much harder than performing a khyal.

While Joshi performs Hindustani music, he is originally from South India, and this has given him the unique opportunity to sing some songs from the Carnatic repertoire in Hindustani Style. Joshi's versions of some of these Carnatic songs have become so popular that the original Carnatic versions sound strange to many members of the younger generation.