Welcome to Unlock the Music
Namaskar & Hello. Greetings and welcome to our 'Unlock the Music' website, which we created in 2020 during the pandemic to help our audience experience the joy of listening to classical music in an interactive way. We believe that music has an important role to play in the world to uplift people. We founded the Shubhendra and Saskia Rao Foundation in 2014 to promote Indian music, music outreach, music education, and cultural dialogues across genres and disciplines. On the Unlock the Music website you can listen and explore concerts of the Unlock the Music Concert series in a new and innovative way with the Art Explorer tool specially designed to make your listening experience an interactive one. Added are the videos of original compositions that are live-streamed to the website. We thank you for your continued support of Unlock the Music.
Shubhendra & Saskia Rao
So happy and excited to share Swara Sangam, a new newsletter on music education edited by the amazing Nirupama Sekhri. In the first issue, we want to thank H.E. Jason Hall, the first resident High Commisioner of Jamaica to India and a former elite athlete who writes about the connection between music and sports. A big thank you to Tictac Sekhri for his beautiful music review. So happy and grateful that this is happening. The objective of Swara Sangam is to connect with people from all walks of life about the importance of having music in your live. We invite you to join us to write and discuss your views on music education and why it matters. We do need your support and input to make it a success. Let us know if you can write, print, donate or share your ideas on music education with us.
About the founders
Pandit Shubhendra Rao
Pandit Shubhendra Rao is an internationally acclaimed performer, composer, cultural entrepreneur and music educator. A protégé of Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar, he established himself 'as a cultural bridge to many cultures' and 'not only as a master of his instrument, but a thinking musician, carrying his instrument beyond conventional boundaries', performing at major concert halls and music festivals all over the world.
Vidushi Saskia Rao - de Haas
Saskia Rao-de Haas is a world-renowned virtuoso cellist, composer, cultural entrepreneur and educationalist from the Netherlands. She was trained as a Western cellist from a young age onwards, but changed direction when she came in touch with Indian music in 1993. She is known as a master performer of Indian classical music and is hailed as the creator of a new instrument: the Indian cello. Flute Maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia speaks of his disciple Saskia as “someone who has been taught by God.” According to him, “everybody should listen to her music”.
