Hearing the AIR Signature Tune brings back floods of memories for those having lived in India. The melody was on repeat for several minutes prior to the beginning of AIR's broadcast day.

U. Srinivas (28 February 1969 - 19 September 2014) was a child prodigy. He was the first musician to use the electric mandolin in Carnatic music. He modified the electric western instrument, using five single strings instead of the traditional four doubled strings to suit the Carnatic pitch, raga system, and especially "gamakas", or nuanced oscillations. He developing a phenomenal style of playing entirely his own, and astonishingly, on an instrument that had never been played in the rigorous and difficult Carnatic style before.

Rajeev Taranath was born in Bangalore on 17 October 1932. He received his initial training in vocal music, and was singing on All India Radio before he was 20. Although Rajeev held a PhD in literature, he decided to give up his career as a Professor and Head of English Literature at Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, and went to Kolkata where he began training on sarod under Ali Akbar Khan.

Nagapattinam Chandrashekharan Vasanthakokilam (1919 – 7 November 1951) was a Carnatic singer and actor. She was born in Irinjalakkuda, Cochin State (the present Kerala). She had a tragic personal life. Her husband did not support her musical pursuits. She was struck down by tuberculosis in 1951, at the age of 32.

Madras Lalitangi Vasanthakumari (popularly referred to as MLV) (3 July 1928 – 31 October 1990), was a contemporary of D.K. Pattammal and M.S. Subbulakshmi, was a prime disciple of G.N. Balasubramaniam.

Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004), is regarded as one the all-time greatest sitar players. He recorded his first 78-RPM disc at the age of 6, and gave his last concert in 2004 at the age of 75. He was born in Gouripur, Mymensingh in then East Bengal in British India and current Bangladesh.

Jalatharangam is found in both North and South India. Jalatharangam (or Jal Tarang) is an array of up to 22 bowls of varying sizes, which can be made of either bronze or porcelain. They are tuned by adding precise amounts of water, and played with little sticks. 🥢🍵💦

Born in Madras on 26 April 1950, he is the son of violinist V. Lakshminarayana, and brother of L. Subramaniam and L. Vaidyanathan. While attending college at Wesleyan University, he met jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin. With McLaughlin, Shankar founded the group Shakti in 1975, one of the early groups in which Eastern and Western musical traditions met. This is the debut recording of his custom double-neck electric violin, which soon found its way onto numerous crossover collaborations.

Born in Bangalore, raised in Chennai, she is the sister of flute maestro Shashank.

Singing in the Sham Chaurasia gharana, Nazakat Ali Khan (1928-1984) and Salamat Ali Khan (1934-2001) had their debut performance on All India Radio, Delhi in 1942, when Salamat was only 8. Their father is vocalist Vilayat Ali Khan. They were from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, and migrated to Lahore after the partition of India.

Shobha Gurtu was born "Bhanumati Shirodkar" on 8 February 1925 in Belgaum, Karnataka, and died 27 September 2004. She was a disciple of Ustad Alladiya Khan of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, and specialized in the light Hindustani classical style. Her son is percussionist Trilok Gurtu.

Yes, "Springled" Colours.

Echampati Gayathri (née Gayathri Vasantha Shoba), popularly known as "Veena Gayathri" was born 9 November 1959in Andhra Pradesh.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (born in Jaipur on 27 July 1950) plays a customized slide guitar (Mohan Veena).

Daya Shankar is the son on shehnai maestro Anant Lal.

Tarun Bhattacharya (born in Howrah on 23 December 1957) plays santoor.

Kumar Bose was born on 4 April 1953 in Kolkata, and plays tabla.

Dwijen Mukhopadhyay (12 November 1927 – 24 December 2018) was an Indian composer and singer whose musical career spanned six decades. He was a performer of Rabindrasangeet (compositions of Rabindranath Tagore), Bengali songs, as well as Bengali and Hindi film songs. He recorded more than 1500 songs, of which about 800 are songs of Rabindranath Tagore. "Je Raate Mor Duarguli" was originally released in 1985 on HMV's "Ganer Jharnatalai".