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Deepak Raja (Born: 1948) is amongst the finest contemporary writers on Hindustani music. He is a Repertoire Analyst for India Archive Music Ltd., New York, the most influential producer of Hindustani music outside India. He is also a columnist for Sruti, the performing arts monthly, and frequently contributes papers to seminars and journals of the ITC-Sangeet Research Academy, Sangeet Natak Akademi, and the Indian Musicological Society. The author is a sitar and surbahar player of the Imdad Khan/Etawah gharana, trained for over forty years by two of its stalwarts, Shri Pulin Deb Burman, and Pandit Arvind Parikh. He studies Khayal under Pandi Dhondutai Kulkarni of the Jaipur-Afrauli gharana. As a performer, he is respected for the soundness of his approach to music, and his command over the instruments. Deepak Raja took a BA Honours degree from Delhi University, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and studied advertising at the Watford College of Technology in the UK. For over thirty years, he has been a prolific writer on media, marketing, finance, as well as music, and has occupied senior positions in the media industry, including the Editorship of Business India. While being well versed in the traditional concepts of Indian musicology, he brings to the subject a fresh perspective using the conceptual tools and analytical methods cultivated by his careers in media research, business journalism and financial consultancy.

Dr. Shiv Kumar Sharma, has done M.A. in History of Art and Ph.D. from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He secured First Class First Position and was awarded the University Gold Medal. He also passed Post-Graduate Diploma in art & Architecture from the same University and Post-Graduate Diploma in Archaeology & Museums from Varanasys Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi securing First Class First in both the Courses. He availed Greek Government Scholarship for another Ph.D. and studied at Athens University Greece in the department of Archaeology and History of Art. During his studies in Greece, he also obtained one year’s diploma in Modern Greek language from the Athens University. On his return from Greece, he was selected as Pool Officer by the U.P.S.C., sponsored by the C.S.I.R. He served Crafts Museum (Govt. of India), New Delhi as Assistant Director and National Museum, New Delhi as Pool Officer. Thereafter, he joined Allahabad Museum, another National Museum of the country, as Education Officer in 1988. Dr. Sharma has honour of several awards like B.H.U. Scholarship, Sr. Fellowship of the I.C.H.R., Research Associateship of the U.G.C., etc. In 1992, ‘Small Study and Research Grant’ was awarded by the ‘Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has organized a large number of art exhibitions of national and international repute in India and abroad. Besides exhibitions at Allahabad Museum, he has organized a number of educational activities, short-term courses on Indian and European art, lectures, seminars and symposiums. Among noteworthy contributions, Dr. Sharma catalogued the huge collection of miniature paintings preserved at Ram Nagar Fort, Varanasi in the collection of Maharaja Banaras under the supervision of Prof. R. Das Gupta. He was also assigned to catalogue a private Indian art collection while studying in Greece. In 1992, Dr. Sharma was called upon by the Hon. High Court Allahabad to organize a prestigious exhibition on the occation of its Post-Centenary Silver Jublee Celebrations. There he displayed photographs, rare documents and precious objects. In the words of the Hon’ble Justice Mr. S.K. Dhawan, the convener of the exhibition committee, ’Dr. Sharma has shown tremendous organizing capacity’ which made him an outstanding display expert. The author has published considerable number of research articles in different research journals of India as well as abroad.