SRINAGAR: Santoor maestro and Padma Shri awardee Bhajan Sopori passed away on Thursday in Fortis Hospital, Gurugram. He was 73.

Santoor Maestro Bhajan Sopori

According to reports, he was suffering from colon cancer. The santoor player was born in Sopore in Kashmir Valley in 1948.

He was great-grandson of Pandit Shankar Pandit, who had developed the style popularly known as the ‘Sufi Baaj’ (style), based on Sufiana Qalam and Hindustani Classical music.

Pandit Shamboo Nath Sopori

Sopori won the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1992 and the Padma Shri in 2004. In 2009 he was honoured with the Baba Allaudin Khan Award and M N Mathur award in 2011 for his contribution to Indian classical music.

Sopori composed music for over 6000 songs in various languages and dialects like Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri, Sindhi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Himachali, Rajasthani, Telegu, Tamil, etc. and also foreign languages like Persian, Arabic, etc and his work was part of films, commercials, documentaries, serials, operas and choirs among others.

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