Hariprasad Chaurasia is an accomplished Indian Classical flautist. Son of a wrestler, Chaurasia began learning vocal music from his neighbor, Pandit Rajaram, as a teenager. Later, he switched to playing the flute under the tutelage of Pandit Bholanath Prasanna of Varanasi for eight years. He joined the All India Radio, Cuttack, Odisha in 1957 and worked as a composer and performer.

Much later, while working for All India Radio, he received guidance from the reclusive Annapurna Devi, daughter of Baba Allaudin Khan. She only agreed to teach him if he switched from right-handed to left-handed playing. Till date, he plays the flute left-handed.

If Chaurasia is more earthly than many of his peers, it is probably down to his background. Indian classical music is a family business: father hands on tradition to son. Chaurasia is a first generation musician with a will of iron to perspire, persist and inspire.

In spite of having achieved so much, the maestro is still giving back to the world through his own music and by nurturing outstanding talent in his school Brindavan, which is based on the gurukul system.

Uma Sharma is a kathak exponent born into a family of litterateurs in Delhi, comprising Acharya Pandit Vasudeva Sharma, Sanskrit vidwan for a father and Ratna Devi for mother.

Uma Sharma received her dance training from Guru Hiralalji and Girvar Dayal of the Jaipur gharana, and subsequently became a student of Pandit Sunder Prasad of the Jaipur gharana who emphasised rhythmic footwork and its permutations, Shambhu Maharaj and Birju Maharaj noted gurus of the Kathak tradition of the Lucknow gharana, known for the art of abhinaya.

From the age of 14, she was invited every year by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to perform at his birthday parties. She was also chosen to perform at Rashtrapati Bhavan for royal visitors including Queen Elizabeth, the Shah & Shah Bano of Iran.

Uma Sharma is not only known for her abhinaya, but is also renowned for her research and innovation, having managed to not only give a new look to the stock repertoire of Kathak, but also bring out the glorious tradition of the Braj Raas of Vrindavan and its relation to Kathak.

Shujaat Khan is a sitar maestro and seventh generation torchbearer of the embellished legacy of the Imdad gharana that has produced many a virtuoso.

He is the son and disciple of the great sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan, and his grandfather, Ustad Inayat Khan, his great-grandfather, Ustad Imdad Khan, and his great-great-grandfather, Ustad Sahebdad Khan, were all leading artists of their respective generations. He can trace his lineage all the way back to Mian Tansen, the great court musician in Emperor Akbar's court.

Born the eldest son to not just a master musician, but a temperamental and incorruptible father, Shujaat Khan's musical career began at the age of three when he began practicing on a specially made small sitar. By the age of six, he was recognized as a child prodigy and began giving public performances.

Gifted with an exceptional voice, he's known to be a fearless collaborator with different genres of musicians

Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar is an Indian sarod player and pupil of Bahadur Khan. Majumdar is one of the most popular and celebrated modern sarod players. He started his music training under his grandfather Bibhuti Ranjan Majumdar with mandolin. He also received vocal and tabla training under Amaresh Chowdhury and Anil Palit. Later he trained under Bahadur Khan for 18 years until the latter died. He then continued training under Ajay Sinha Roy and Ali Akbar Khan. He has played duets with Shujaat Khan. The rendering of raag Charukeshi is especially notable.

He stood first in the All India Radio music competition in 1981 and was awarded the President's gold medal and the Pandit D. V. Paluskar award. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2018.

Begum Parveen Sultana is an Indian Hindustani classical singer of the Patiala Gharana. She gave her first stage performance in 1962 when she was 12 and has been recording music since 1965. She has started her professional career with Abdul Majid's Assamese Film Morom Trishna. She has sung for Bollywood movies such as Gadar, Kudrat, Do Boond Pani, and Pakeezah, and several other Assamese films. Recently, she sang the theme song of Vikram Bhatt's 1920. She also sang Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna for the film Kudrat in 1981. She has recorded for HMV, Polydor, Music India, Bharat Records, Auvidis, Magnasound, Sonodisc, and Amigo.

She was awarded the Padma Shri (1976) and Padma Bhushan (2014) by the Government of India, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1998, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama.

Disciple and son of Grammy award winner Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt, Pt. Salil Bhatt is the creator of the Satvik Veena and heir to a 500 year old musical legacy. He has performed in India and 40 other countries in a career spanning 30 years. From solo concerts, international collaborations, exotic jugalbandis and global fusion, he has marveled audiences the world over. He is the first ever musician to perform inside the Parliament of Germany and the first Indian musician to be awarded an artiste’s residency in Taiwan. Prestigious titles like Tantri Samrat, Sangeet Ratan, Swami Haridas Sangeet Samman and a Canadian Grammy nomination have been bestowed upon him.

Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar is an Indian classical singer of the dhrupad genre and the son of dhrupad singer Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar. Dagar received most of his training under his father, and younger uncle, the Junior Dagar Brothers, since he was five years old. Additionally, he has had opportunity to receive instructions from his grand uncle, A. Rahimuddin Dagar, his elder uncle, Nasir Aminuddin Dagar (who, along with Nasir Moinuddin Dagar, comprised the Senior Dagar Brothers), as well as some of his cousin uncles, Zia Fariduddin Dagar, Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar and H. Sayeeduddin Dagar. Between 1989 and 1994, he was trained by his uncle, Zahiruddin Dagar with whom he used to sing jugalbandis. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2010.

Pt. Shubhendra Rao is an Indian composer and sitar player. He is a classical musician as well as a collaborator working with musicians from different genres across the world. He has performed at venues and festivals such as the Kennedy Centre, Carnegie Hall, Broadway, the Sydney Opera House, the National Arts Festival, the Théâtre de la Ville, the Dover Lane Music Conference, and St. Xavier's College Ahmedabad. A protégé of late Pt. Ravi Shankar, he is acknowledged by critics and connoisseurs alike as a worthy successor to his teacher's tradition.

Saskia Rao is a virtuoso cellist and composer from the Netherlands based in New Delhi. She was born in Abcoude, the Netherlands in a family of music lovers. Saskia studied cello under the Hungarian cellist Tibor de Machula and went on to do a Masters in Ethnomusicology from the University of Amsterdam and the Conservatory of Rotterdam where she studied under Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Koustuv Ray. She first came to India in 1994 where she studied Indian music under Dr. Sumati Mutatkar at the Delhi University. Subsequently, she has also been tutored by Pandit D.K. Datar, Pandit Deepak Chowdhury and Pandit Shubhendra Rao.

Shubha Mudgal is a singer and composer, known for her works in Hindustani classical music, Indian pop, and Tamil cinema. Her repertoire includes the genres of khayal, thumri, dadra. Shubha Mudgal started performing as a Hindustani classical singer in the 1980s, and gained a certain reputation as a talented singer. In the 1990s, she started experimenting with other forms of music, including pop and fusion varieties. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2000.