Debashish Bhattacharya and Derek Gripper have played together in India and the US, but this is their first time together in the UK. They will each perform some of their solo repertoire before their spectacular collaboration much of which will be newly composed. In the glowing acoustic of Hall One the adventures of these two guitar masters will be enthralling.

You might also like Q&A: ‘Debashish Bhattacharya in conversation with Simon Broughton’ at 3.15pm in St Pancras Room today.

You might also like ‘Anandi Bhattacharya’ at 7pm in Hall Two tonight.

Take advantage of our Sunday Festival Pass.

‘Debashish Bhattacharya is the epitome of slide guitar playing — a genre he has helped popularize to express the subtleties of Indian classical music.’ India Link

Debashish Bhattacharya has long been recognised as the slide guitar master of India. He’s played over 3000 concerts around the world. He’s been Grammy nominated and has won many awards in India and beyond, including a Songlines Music Award in 2016.

South African guitarist Derek Gripper, who played with John Williams at Songlines Encounters in 2016, is best known for his brilliant transcriptions of West African kora music onto six-string classical guitar. What is less known is that he also studied Indian music.