Ashit Desai

Since winning All India Radio's Best Singer Award at the age of 18, Ashit Desai’s rich baritone voice has won accolades and awards for more than three decades.  He is heard on numerous fine recordings, film and television soundtracks and performs throughout India and the world.  He earned the Gujarat State Award in 1976 and 1989, and is acclaimed for his music direction in the monumental Doordarshan serial Chanakya.
 
Ashit has had a long professional association with world-renown sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar.  The maestro engaged Ashit in composing music for the Asiad and placed him in charge of overall coordination of the cultural events.  For this he was awarded the coveted Asiad Jyoti Medal by the President of India.   In 1982 Ashit sang the vocal soundtrack for the Academy Award-winning Best Picture Gandhi, with music by Ravi Shankar.  In 1988 he conducted Ravi Shankar’s orchestral compositions at the closing ceremony of the Festival of India in Moscow.  As the maestro's assistant, orchestra conductor and singer, he toured the U.K. and India in 1989 with Ravi Shankar’s ballet Ghanashyam.  In 1986 he was appointed by Pandit Ravi Shankar to direct the Indian Choir at the Dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi.
 
In 1990, The Independent reported on Ashit’s relationship with the sitar maestro, “Ravi Shankar’s man Friday arranges the music, conducts the orchestra and is an indispensible part of each of Ravi Shankar’s projects.”  The Times of India noted, “a special word of praise is necessary for Ashit Desai’s brilliant soulful singing with his deep mellow voice.”  Pandit Ravi Shankar summed it up best himself when he pronounced of Desai, “I love him as my son and student, appreciate his constitution, personality and charming nature.”