Anant Lal, often referred to by the title Pandit, was an Indian classical musician and teacher who played the shehnai.
Background
Lal was born in Varanasi (or Benares), in the northern Indian province of Uttar Pradesh, in 1927. The oboe-like shehnai had been a musical instrument played in his family for over 200 years, and he initially received tuition from his father, Pandit Mithai Lal, as well as his uncles, from the age of nine.
Career
In addition to the shehnai, Lal played bamboo flute, known as the bansuri. Following the example of master musician Bismillah Khan, he dedicated his musical career to furthering the role of the shehnai in Hindustani classical music, since the instrument had traditionally been reserved for religious ceremonies. Lal established himself as a staff artist for All India Radio, with whom he served until 1987.
Among his works as a performer and recording artist in India, he played with sitar virtuosos Ravi Shankar and Debu Chaudhuri.
In 1974, Shankar chose Lal to join his Music Festival from India revue, which was the largest Indian orchestra to perform in Europe up to that time. In addition to recording a studio album in England with Shankar"s ensemble, released on George Harrison"s Dark Horse Records in 1976, Lal toured Europe with the Music Festival.
His fellow performers included leading figures of Indian classical music – among them, Alla Rakha, Lakshmi Shankar, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Sultan Khan and L. Subramaniam. As on the Music Festival from India album, Lal"s featured spot as a soloist was on the piece "Kajri".
The debut performance, filmed at London"s Royal Albert Hall on 23 September 1974, was released on Digital Video Disc in 2010, as part of the four-disc box set Ravi Shankar–George Harrison, Collaborations.
Lal"s own recordings include Splendour in Shehnai, issued in 1990 on the T-Series record label. Lal died on 3 March 2011, aged 84, from a heart attack.