Christian Noçon - Sitar

Being one of the few western artists who are able to play authentic Indian classical music with virtuosity, Christian Noçon receives enthusiastic concert reviews - and the comments on the Indian side are equally convinced:
"If you wouldn't see who is playing, you would think it is somebody from India."
On a journey to India the ancient North Indian music tradition started to fascinate Christian Noçon and he took his first lessons on the sitar. The structure of Indian classical music and playing technique of the sitar were taught to him in the following years by renowned artists like Dr. Raj Bhan Singh (Banaras Hindu University) and Prof. Subroto Roy Chowdhury (Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta). To extend his knowledge, recently he became disciple of one of the most eminent sitar players: Pandit Manilal Nag.
Christian is accompanied by able tabla players, and his close connection to the Indian classical music scene and its artists is audible in his raga renditions: in his playing the very soul of India can be heard.
Presently Christian performs throughout Germany, in Italy and in India. Amongst others, he has played at the Indian Embassy in Berlin, at the Madhya Kolkata Sangeet Samelan, at the Jadavpur University in Calcutta and at the ‘Brahm Naad’ event of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Noida 2008 where he shared the stage with over thousand Sitar players from India and all over the world.
He teaches Indian classical music himself by now, arranges compositions for Indian and western instruments, collaborates with artists of other musical traditions (western and middle-eastern classical music, jazz, pop, celtic and folk) and works as studio musician.
"The actual meaning of the word 'raga' is 'that which colours the mind' - and in fact to me, playing a raga is like drawing a picture: In the alap, the basic melodic outline is sketched using the various hues of the Indian musical notes (swaras) with the shades of their constantly changing microtones (shrutis). Later on, faster strokes and brushes come into play filling the acoustic image with vibrant excitement."