Musician Nadaka on the geet-taar, a string instrument he crafted, and his fascination for Indian classical music

Musician Nadaka on the geet-taar a string instrument he crafted and his fascination for Indian classical music

With a cheery  vanakam, musician Nadaka settles down in the lobby of Hotel Residency in Thiruvananthapuram to talk about his music and the geet-taar, a 24-string acoustic instrument that he created.

In Thiruvananthapuram, for a concert,  Geet-Taar & Taal, with Illyas Khan on the sarangi and Chandrashekhar Ravindra Gandhi on the tabla, the French-Canadian musician who lives in Pondicherry, says he views music as an expression of his love for melody and peace. “There are no gymnastics in our concert. It is soothing and beautiful.”

The concerts were held as a part of the Francophonie 2023 celebration of the Alliance Française de Triuvandrum, in association with the Quebec Government Office in Mumbai and Consulate of Canada.

For Nadaka, the making of the geet-taar, is the story of a journey. A journey that brought him all the way from Quebec in Canada to Puducherry in India.

In the sixties, pop tunes were changing the sound of music. “At 12, I was caught up in Beatle mania. Genesis and Jethro Tull were also making waves with their progressive rock movement. I had listened to Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha. It was Indian music that touched my soul.”

Although he learnt Western classical music, Nadaka admits that then he was not a great player but an excellent listener. “If I liked a piece of music, I could listen to the same piece more than 100 times.”

Reading the Upanishads and the philosophy of J Krishnamurthi and Sri Aurobindo Ghosh greatly influenced him. “I was impressed by Aurobindo’s teaching and I knew I had to come to India.”