Pandit Manohar Vasudev Chimote

Pandit Manohar Vasudev Chimote veteran harmonium and Samvadini player who contributed towards Hindustani classical music.

Chimote was awarded with Maharashtra government award for excellence in the field of music.

Born in a rich family at Nagpur on March 27,1928, he learnt harmonium from Pandit Bhishmadev Vediji and migrated to Mumbai to contribute towards Indian classical music.

He was awarded by Maharashtra government for excellence in the field of music in the year 1998. He was also awarded by ITC for research in the field of music and Uttam Sangeet Shikshak Puraskar, 1995 by Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Pune.

Pandit Manohar Chimote was famous for jugal bandi on his researched instrument Samvadhini with various artists.

He had accompanied popular Indian tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, famous flute Pandit Ronu Majumdar , Hindustani violinist Shridhar Parsekar and harmonium player Shree Govindrao Patwardhan in a number of concerts all over India.

"Pandit Chimote made changes in the keyboard of the harmonium so that pressure control on the keyboard along with the air pressure in the bellows would display subtle expressions to the music being played on Harmonium. Along with Pandit Bhishmadev Vediji and Acharya Brihaspatiji, he worked on the tuning of this instrument and introduced the concept of 'gandhar-based tuning' for the first time in Harmonium.

This tuning system is the original tuning system used in traditional Indian classical music. With this change Harmonium became a complete instrument for solo performances with equal capability as any other instrument.

"He believed 'Harmony' means 'samvad' in sanskrit an thus, an instrument which is capable of creating harmony must be called 'samvadini'. Since then this instrument is called samvadini" said Rajendra Vaisampayan, a samvadini (Harmonium) soloist and disciple of Pt Manohar Chimote.