Prepare To experience...
Bansuri Bliss
If your goal is to learn bansuri and the classical music of northern India, you are in the right place!
Bansuri Bliss was founded by Dr. Kerry Kriger as a means of spreading the musical knowledge he has acquired since beginning his bansuri journey in 1996.
Regardless of your age, cultural background or musical experience, you can learn bansuri through the clear and concise teaching you will find within the Bansuri Bliss website and in the live online classes Dr. Kriger gives every week.
Dr. Kerry Kriger and friends at the Calcutta Music Academy, March 4th, 2018.
Dr. Kerry Kriger playing bansuri in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, January 2007.
If it is true that...
Your Goal Is To Play Amazing Bansuri
If your goal is to learn bansuri and the classical music of northern India, I can teach you using the same structured approach I acquired from my guru (Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao) and that I have used to teach hundreds of bansuri students of all ages.
At Bansuri Bliss, you will find thorough online courses in over 30 ragas, covering beginner through advanced levels. We hold multiple online private and group classes via Zoom every week, and have an active worldwide community of bansuri enthusiasts on Discord, enabling you to connect with other bansuri players and get your questions answered between classes.
Get started with our free Getting Started With Bansuri course. Then become a Bansuri Bliss Member if you are truly dedicated to creating Bansuri Bliss for yourself and your audience.
How This All Began...
A Message From Bansuri Bliss Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger
I’ve played bansuri almost every day since 1996. I grew up in the suburbs of Northern Virginia in a non-musical, non-Indian family and I never studied music until I was 21 years old. I was inspired to play flute in 1995 when I heard the melodious sounds of a flute while traveling through the Greek isles. The flutist told me that if I wanted to learn the flute, I needed to learn the raga (the Indian classical music form). I had recently heard the great sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar so was familiar with Indian music and knew that it was based largely on improvisation. Being a huge fan of improvised music, I took the flutist’s advice and started researching how to learn bansuri.
I found out that San Francisco was the center of Indian music outside of India, so after I graduated college, I moved to San Francisco to begin my Indian musical journey (online courses didn’t exist back then!). I intended to take just two months of bansuri lessons in order to pick up the basics. But I fell in love with the instrument and the pleasures of learning Indian classical music, and bansuri has been a major part of my life ever since.
In 1999 I returned to Virginia to learn bansuri from the great flute master Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao, who had studied under and collaborated with Pandit Ravi Shankar for thirty years. Vijayji spent half of each year in Virginia, so I always tried to be there when he was there. A few summers he spent in southern California, so I spent those summers in California as well, taking as many lessons as he had time to give. Vijayji was born in India in 1925 and spent his entire life composing, recording, performing and teaching Indian music. I was fortunate to receive private lessons from him from 1999 through 2008, and he once told me that he had taught me more material than any of his other students (who include GS Sachdev and Ronu Majumdar). One of my major goals is to share with you the wealth of knowledge that Vijayji passed down to me, and to ensure the world is filled with more and better bansuri music.
Aside from bamboo flute, I’ve studied tabla (Indian hand drums) and electric guitar. I’ve taught myself piano, ukulele, and jaw harp, and I am quite adept with a darabuka (middle eastern drum). I’ve attended hundreds of concerts, including those of legendary musicians such as Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Amjad Ali Khan, Shivkumar Sharma, Zakir Hussain, Anindo Chatterjee, Ramani, L. Subramanian and of course my guru Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao, as well as plenty of rock and roll, jazz, funk and other western music. And I’ve recorded, performed and practiced with a variety of musicians from around the world.
In 2008 I built the Indian Flute Music website and started sending out regular electronic newsletters about bansuri. In 2013, I began uploading music lesson videos to YouTube and giving private and group lessons online and in person. In 2017, I founded Indian Flute Music LLC and in 2018 re-branded the business as Bansuri Bliss, as bliss is what well-played bansuri brings the musician and the audience.
My 20+ years of musical study and teaching (combined with significant experience teaching math and science from the elementary to university level) enables me to pass information on to my students in a clear and concise manner, and to quickly see ways they can improve their music.
I’m looking forward to teaching you bansuri!
Kerry Kriger, Ph.D.
Bansuri Bliss LLC
Founder, President & Flute Player
Dr. Kerry Kriger enjoying the rainforest in Parque Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 16th, 2020.
Dr. Kerry Kriger sitting in on Bashir Ahmed Khan’s sitar class at the Badruka College of Commerce and Arts in Hyderabad, India. January 2019
Dr. Kerry Kriger enjoying a flute melody and the surroundings at Itacoatiara, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 2020.
At Piratinanga, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 2020.
Join Us Each Week For...
Bansuri Bliss Office Hours
In an effort to spread the lndian classical music knowledge far and wide, Bansuri Bliss Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger and his top students offer a FREE bansuri online lesson each week via Zoom. During Bansuri Bliss Office Hours, you will learn a raga, meet other bansuri players and get your questions answered in a live setting!
Dr. Kerry Kriger plays an afternoon melody at Angkor Wat, Cambodia, March 1st, 2019.
