In my musical journey I was fortunate
enough to get to know Ira after contacting him about doing some pictures of
Nikhil Banerjee for me to put in my music room. I learned of him through the
many fascinating articles he has done for the CD booklets from Raga
Records, Frets magazine, and elsewhere. He was very kind to agree to allow
me to have some of his wonderful photos here. If you see any you like, then
please contact him to have custom prints made for you, he does an excellent
job!
Lars Jacobsen
Ira
Landgarten is an aficionado and independent scholar who has been
studying and documenting Indian classical music for nearly 30 years. From
1973-76, he lived in India and Nepal, studying traditional sitar rudiments
of the Vishnupur school with the late Sangeetacharya Gokul Nag and his son,
Pandit Manilal Nag, as well as researching the string instrument craft in
Calcutta. His articles, interviews, liner notes and photographs of many of
India's most renowned musicians have appeared throughout the world. He is
also the co-founder of Raga Records,
specializing in live and historic concert recordings and Simla House,Inc.,
importers of fine musical instruments from India. Ira has been affiliated
with the World Music Institute, New York since its inception. He is
currently working on an anthology of his photos and interviews with many of
India's major classical musicians, and a video documentary on the Kumbha
Mela, Hardwar 1986-"Kings with Straw Mats"-on
which he collaborated, has been released by
Mystic Fire Video. You may contact
him at iraland@earthlink.net
