About Dattatreya

Hindustani Classical vocalist

Surmani Dr. Dattatreya Velankar is an accomplished Hindustani classical performer, teacher, academician and the founder of Shadja Kala Kendra, Bangalore, India. He is a disciple of renowned Gwalior-Kirana Gharana maestro, Pt. Vinayak Torvi and Keertanacharya Lakshmandas Velankar. For more than 3 decades, he has pursued rigorous training under Torviji, who has blessed Dattatreya with Ganda Bandan Deeksha. He is gifted with a rich and graceful voice, his exquisite rendition style has won him many critical acclaims and accolades, both in India and abroad. 

Dattatreya Velankar is an ‘A’ graded All India Radio and Doordarshan artiste. He is an Empaneled Artiste of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) Govt. of India.

He has performed at many music festivals, such as :

• Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Music festival, Pune

• Swami Vivekananda Birthday celebrations, Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal

• ICCR , Horizon Series – Mumbai, Varanasi, Goa

• ‘Azadi ka Amrita Mahostav’ organized by ICCR Bangalore.

• All Night Music Festival – Gururao Deshpande Sangeet Sabha, Bangalore

• LearnQuest Music Conference - Boston, USA

• Adem festival Geneva, Switzerland

• SIFAS - Singapore

• Reitberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland

• Sri Maa Sharada Devi Birthday Celebrations, Jayarambati, West Bengal  

• Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre Youth Festival, Mumbai

• ‘Aarohi’ organized by Pancham Nishad, Mumbai

• Devnandan Ubhaykar Youth Festival, Bangalore

• Soorya Festival, Trivandrum

• Malabar Festival, Calicut

• Kala Prakash, Varanasi

• Uttaradhikari Festival, Ratlam MP

• Tyagaraja College of Music and Dance, Hyderabad

• Swami Vivekananda 150th Anniversary celebrations, Rajkot

• Pracheena Kala Kendra, Chandigarh

• Jugalbandi concerts with Vidwan Balasubramanya Sharma (Carnatic Vocal)

“Surmani” title conferred by the Sursingar Samsad, Mumbai

“Bhajan Bhushan” title conferred by the Maharashtra Association, Chennai 

"Brahmateja" award conferred by Akhila Karnataka Brahmana Mahasabha, Bengaluru 

Dattatreya has many Hindustani Classical, Bhajans, Jugalbandi and Katha Keerthan CDs to his credit. 

It is indeed a speciality of Dattatreya, that he performs both Hindustani Classical Vocal and Katha Keerthan. He has been performing many Santavani concerts.

He has toured USA, Singapore, France, Switzerland, Sweden, UK and Australia.

Teacher  

Dattatreya has been teaching classical music from past 2 decades. His students have been giving performing classical and light music concerts. He has many talented students all over the world and a few of them have given their debut concert in Boston USA. He is a visiting faculty of LearnQuest Academy of Music, Waltham MA USA.

Dattatreya is one of the founders of the Shadja Kala Kendra Trust, Bangalore – an institution dedicated to the age-old ‘Guru-Shishya Parampara’ of Hindustani Classical Music and he is training several students.

Working as Guest faculty at The Lakshminarayana Global Centre of Excellence Bangalore, started by Padmabhushan Dr. L Subramanian ji and Padmashri Smt Kavita Krishnamurty ji. 

Dattatreya has been conducting Hindustani classical vocal workshop at Ramakrishna Vedantic Center, Gretz- Armainvilliers, France.