Raag Bhairav | Morning Raga | Dagar Vaani | Dhrupad Alap | Pelva Naik

live concert Recorder at Museum Rietberg Zurich | Switzerland.
14th April 2024.

Born on 5th February 1986 in Ahmedabad, India, Pelva Naik is one of the leading young Indian Classical vocalists and exponent of the ancient genre of classical Raga Music Tradition named DHRUPAD.

With an outstanding and ongoing stage career, in India and Internationally, her work is inspired by her passion for re-discovering the ancient sounds and her deep interest in historically- informed performance practice and teaching.

Pelva’s focus is to get to the heart of the music, to its meaning for us - now and here. With a combination of depth, brilliance and freedom.

She is a student of life and Art. Pelva hails from a family of artists and educationists.

Pelva has been trained in the Dhrupad style of vocal music under the eminent Dagar School of Indian classical Music. She began her training in Dhrupad at the age of 17. She is a disciple of legendary Dhrupad maestro Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar. She has also received able guidance from Rudraveena exponent Bahauddin Dagar.

Pelva grew up singing and studying a wide spectrum of Indian folk songs, Gujarati literature, Dance and fine arts. She began her formal training in Khayal singing ( Indian classical) in Ahmedabad under the tutelage of Senior Vocalist Smt Pratima Trivedi. She went on to study fine arts and humanities at the Krishnamurti Foundation School in Bangalore where she met Ustad Z F Dagar.

Pelva is an active propagator of the fight against hierarchy in gender, class, cast, race and religion in the field of arts and society at large. The singer who completed her master’s degree in Philosophy with a distinction is also deeply interested in history, metaphysics, travelling, reading, writing, painting and cooking.

In her music, Pelva endeavours to adhere sincerely to the unique traditional elements that the Dhrupad form offers; at the same time, she is known to strive and cultivate fresh characteristics that are personal and distinct. Alāp- the slow and intricate elaboration of a Rāga is the hallmark of the Dagar school of Dhrupad Music. She takes distinct interest in the exploration and formation of Raga in its most personal and uncharted features.

Teaching music, sharing and upholding the sense of liability that comes with it, she believes, is what keeps the process of evolution constant in craft and in life. Pelva is one of the most acclaimed and admired young Dhrupad teachers today due to her eloquent and easy manner and natural ability and passion to relate with every individual seeking to learn and listen to the music across the globe.