SwarRagini Sangeet Mahavidyalaya
Shop no 19 & 20, Ground Floor, Bhavishya India Tower, opp. 10th Avenue, Gaur City 2, Noida, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201009, India
SwarRagini Sangeet Mahavidyalaya is a distinguished academy for Hindustani classical and semi-classical music, rooted in the Guru–Shishya parampara yet wholly at ease with modern pedagogical tools. Located in a quiet, tree-lined lane of Pune’s Kothrud suburb, the institution first opened its modest doors in 1987 as a single-room baithak under the guidance of vocalist-pandita Meera Dixit Joshi. Today it occupies a three-storied, sun-washed building whose ochre awning bears the graceful Devanagari calligraphy of its name. A stone courtyard adorned with a small copper naad-yantra (sound wheel) welcomes students; the gentle clink of manjiras on the morning breeze often guides newcomers to the correct doorway.
Inside, ambience and acoustics have been designed with equal care. The main chamber, Gwalior Hall, seats sixty and is upholstered in indigo khadi; its ceiling carries precisely angled spruce panels that keep tanpura resonance alive without electronic amplification. Adjacent are smaller riyaaz rooms—Sarang, Veena and Tarsapan—each equipped with tanpuras, tabla sets, and recent upgrades: 4K recording booths with auto-metronomes for metric analysis. A digital library of rare 78 rpm recordings, begun with Meera-ji’s private collection and now 3,200 hours strong, can be accessed from tablets stationed at eye-level shelves between the practice rooms.
Curriculum spans three concurrent streams—Vocal (khayal, thumri, tappa), Instrumental (sitar, sarod, violin, harmonium, flute, tabla), and Theory–Composition (a lec-dem programme compulsory for diploma candidates). Students enrol at four levels—Praveshika, Madhyama, Visharad, and Alankar—each requiring an annual histology-style voice/instrument profile created using the academy’s AI spectrograph. Faculty comprise six gurus and twelve visiting artists; recent visiting residencies have included sitarist Niladri Kumar and vocalist Kalapini Komkali. Classes run six days a week, 7 a.m.–9 p.m., with staggered slots to accommodate schoolchildren, IT professionals, and seniors alike.
Annual calendar is divided into Quarterlies—Baithaki Mehfil (autumn), Vasantotsav (spring), Shravan Sandhya (monsoon concerts on open terrace), and the inter-generational Antarang Sabha where grandparents perform alongside grandchildren. Every December, the four-day SwarRagini Sammelan hosts national competition finals, attracting 600 participants from twenty-two states; prize categories include original raga-based fusion and abhang choir.
Beyond music, the Mahavidyalaya actively nurtures cross-disciplinary dialogue. Monthly “Sur-Kavita” evenings couple emerging poets with alaap renditions; the ‘Sonic Sketch’ project invites visual artists to paint live while students improvise in ragas they have never been told in advance, an exercise in synaesthetic listening first conceived by alumnus-sound designer Bhavna Jani.
Admission is by informal audition; tuition fees are graded on income slabs in the spirit of Guru Dakshina. Need-based scholarships—named after patrons such as vocalist Shubha Mudgal—cover 40 % of the student body. A mobile outreach unit comprising four teachers and two acoustic vans takes weekend lessons to village schools in Mulshi and Bhor talukas, ensuring that the word ‘sangeet’ never stays trapped within city limits.
Today, nearly 1,400 students train here each year. Many proceed to universities like ITC SRA, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, and Berklee; others become schoolteachers, playback singers, or simply lifelong rasiks who return every Gudi Padwa to sing Meera bhajans under the neem tree where it all began.
Check on Google Maps
- Published: August 6, 2025
