Sur sangram music academy

Sur sangram music academy
Kadamba Shopping Complex, F25, Block F, Gamma 1, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201308, India

Founded in 2011 in the heart of Gorakhpur’s Kunraghat area, Sur Sangram Music Academy is a full-spectrum conservatory where “classical meets contemporary before breakfast and jam sessions continue until midnight.” Its three-storey heritage bungalow, painted the deep indigo of Benarasi jamdani borders, shelters five timbre-designed studios, a 96-seat raga-in-resolve auditorium, and an open-to-sky courtyard planted with neem and pakad trees whose leaves become impromptu metronomes every monsoon season.

Weekly rhythm lab

Every Monday and Thursday at dawn a rhythm lab convenes under the pakad canopy: 35 tabla, mrı-dangam, and cajón players face each other in concentric circles, guided by founder–guru Dr. Arjun Tripathi. The exercise, called Taal-Darshan, invites each percussionist to reinterpret the 16-beat Teentaal in 8/8 Morse-code–like clusters, a practice said to sharpen mnemonic reflexes across timbres. Participants later report improved alap phrasing when they return to melodic instruments.

Sound-engineering & scholarship

Downstairs, Studio Pravah incorporates a 24-input digital desk, vintage ribbon mics rescued from All India Radio’s 1970 archives, and a one-of-a-kind tanpura drone generator that can be retuned to harmonic series from Pythagorean to maqam interpretations. Diploma courses in Hindustani vocals, sitar, and studio production run simultaneously; each enrollee receives a subsidised harmonium and 18 hours of DAW training on Logic Pro and Hindustani pitch-shifter plugins. Scholarships named after Begum Akhtar and Bismillah Khan cover 70 % of tuition for under-resourced applicants; to date 212 students from Nepal, Bihar, and Balochistan have graduated on full rides.

Festivals & community outreach

Every March the courtyard hosts the two-night Sursagar festival. Last year saxophonist Rhys Sebastian grafted Piazzolla ostinatos onto raga Jog while dancers from Manipur’s Lai-Haraoba troupe weaved phīs (golden sequins) through brisk tihāis. Entry is free for anyone who arrives on foot or cycle; 3,400 attended in 2024. During monsoon the academy lends instruments to ten rural government schools within a 40-km radius, sending alumni mentors to establish kirtan choirs and mother-tongue rabab ensembles.

Faculty spotlight

Faculty includes vocalist Shruti Bhave (École de Musique-Arabesque, Geneva) who teaches taan curve mapping via biofeedback sensors clipped to the larynx, and guitarist-producer Ahsan Ali who runs modular-synth ‘raga jams’ after hours. When daylight savings ends, Ali syncs his Eurorack sequencer to the academy’s rooftop sundial, producing drone tracks whose tempo decelerates exactly like the shadow.

Whether you arrive as a seven-year-old hooked on Shin’ichi Suzuki or a 57-year-old hummer ready to be notated into raga Desh, Sur Sangram offers immersion calibrated less around certificates and more around the conviction that every sur (musical note) is also sangram (struggle, and effort) heard in full bloom.

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