Vijay Gonahalu B

Vijay Gonahalu is a Bengaluru-based Hindustani sitar player of the Imdadkhani/Etawah (Vilayat Khani) gharana. He first trained in vocal music under his father, AIR artist Pandit Basavaraj Gonahalu (a disciple of Pandit Puttaraj Gawai), then took up sitar under Ustad Rafeeq Khan Nadaf and, from 1999, under Padma Bhushan Pandit Arvind Parikh. He holds a master's degree in sitar from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, and won a Gold Medal in the 'Visharad' exam (2002) from Akhila Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya; he is a B-High graded AIR/Akashvani artist and teaches through the Alaap Sangeet Sabha, a non-profit founded by his family in 2013.