About
Musician, scientist, writer, poet, philosopher Dr. Krishna Kant Shukla is a multidimensional being. Having studied in some of the best schools and colleges in India and U.K, he went on to obtain an M.S. and PhD. at the State University of New York at Buffalo in Quantum Physics. While teaching Physics and Astronomy as an Assistant Professor in upstate New York, he decided to quit the family trade of academics, and follow his heart & soul deep into the fathomless waters of Indian Classical Music. Having studied with great maestros like Srimati Laxmi Shankar, Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan, Dr. Tapan Bhattacharya, he returned to India in 1994 to explore the roots of Indian Classical Music in the great living oral folk traditions.
His musical search has led him into remote villages in the Himalayan foothills, as well as far flung and difficult to reach dwellings in the central plains of India. He has been particularly influenced by the songs of Kabir, Gorakhnath, and other Nirguna Bhakti poet-saints. These songs have been sung as part of a living oral tradition that is over fourteen hundred years old. Dr. Shukla’s repertoire includes compositions of Tyagaraja, Tulsidas, Surdas, Meerabai, Tukaram, Purandardas, Guru Nanak, and other poet-saints of India, as well as the musical compositions of Sufi Saints. He has also been researching, recording, and performing the folk songs of rural northern India, which belong to living oral traditions that go back several centuries. In addition to being art forms of unparalleled beauty, these folk traditions also serve as profound channels of knowledge transmission from generation to generation. Moreover, these invaluable traditions are fast becoming extinct due to onslaught of modernity.
Dr. Shukla’s chief guiding light, inspiration, and guru is the legendary (late) Pandit Kumar Gandharva. Dr. Shukla has given several acclaimed performances in India and abroad, and is an empanelled artist with the ICCR (Indian Council of Cultural Relations). In January 2025, Dr. Krishna Kant Shukla was awarded the “UTTAR PRADESH GAURAV SAMMAN” (Jewel of Uttarpradesh) which is the highest honor awarded by the State of Uttar Pradesh, for his work in the fields of Music, Physics, and Spiritual Ecology.The award was given to him by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath and also the Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar.
He has toured the U.S., Europe, and other countries several times where he given several memorable concerts and workshops including some appearances on TV and Radio. Several of these concerts included lecture demonstrations and classroom visits at leading American Universities such as Stanford, Cornell, and Berkeley amongst others. Dr. Shukla plays several musical instruments, including western classical guitar. His performances & lectures have been aired on national TV in India. Among his other endeavors, he actively promotes ecological initiatives with spiritual foundation. His talk on “Science, Spirituality and the Environment (Spiritual Ecology)” has been broadcast on Indian national radio & several radio stations in mainland US & Hawaii. He is the founding trustee of Saha Astitva Foundation that created a model eco-farm in Western India (Maharashtra).
He now lives in his native hometown of Varanasi in northern India, on the banks of the great river, Mother Ganga.
MUSICAL EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
Dr. Shukla was born with a gift for music, into a musical family. He had taught himself to play a dozen musical instruments by the age of 13. While studying in Dudley Grammar School, U.K., between ages 10-13, he consistently stood first in the music class among 30 students where he learnt the basics of Western Classical Music and participated regularly in the school choir. Later, during undergraduate studies in India, he was elected Secretary of Music Society in St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi. He continued to pursue music as a serious hobby and won several awards at music competitions and festivals.
While in Graduate School in the U.S., became interested in the methodical study of Indian Classical Music. He studied vocal music with Dr. Tapan Bhattacharya and the renowned Shrimati Laxmi Shankar. After completing his PhD in Physics from the U.S., and while working as an Assistant Professor in upstate New York, he decided to pursue the study of Indian Classical Music full time. Temporarily taking a break from his physics career in 1992, he became a full time student of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan at Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. Here, he studied vocal, sarod, and tabla.
In 1994, Dr. Shukla returned to India to explore the roots of Indian Classical Music, which extend into the folk musical traditions of the villages. He has traveled extensively thru rural India, studying, recording and performing folk songs. In particular, his research led him to the devotional musical compositions of poet-saints, such as Kabir, Tulsidas, Tyagaraja, Tukaram, Gorakhnath, Nanak, etc. Dr. Shukla considers the late Pandit Kumar Gandharva to be his guru, ideal and inspiration. Between his musical forays into the mountains and villages of India he continues to study, teach, and perform.
FORMAL EDUCATION
PhD (1990) Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
M.S (1985) Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
B.Sc. (Physics Hons.) St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, India.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1) While studying at Ali Akbar College of Music in the U.S., Krishna taught voice culture and Indian Classical vocal music (1992-1994) and continues to do so till the present in India.
2) Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York, USA.(1991)
3) Visiting Lecturer at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Department of Physics and Astronomy. (1988)
4) Teaching Assistant in the Physics Department, SUNY Buffalo. (1981-1987)
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
PhD Thesis: In the general area of Solid State Theoretical Physics. PhD thesis entitled “Calculations of Electron Effective Mass based on 3-D Kroenig Penny Model with Application to Solids”.
Master’s Thesis: Research in the general area of Statistical Mechanics.
PUBLICATIONS
Research work has been published in the book “Quantum Statistical theory of Superconductivity” edited by Dr. Van der Meswe; Reidel Kluwer Book co.
AWARDS and HONOURS
- In January 2025, Dr. Krishna Kant Shukla was awarded the “UTTAR PRADESH GAURAV SAMMAN” which is the highest honor awarded by the State of Uttar Pradesh, for his work in the fields of Music, Physics and Spiritual Ecology.The award was given to him by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath and also the Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar.
- In September 2002, he was honored by the ex president of India, Shri K.R. Narayanan at a function organized by the Modern School Diaspora Initiative.
- In 1986, he received Honorable Mention for “Excellence in teaching”, awarded by the State University of New York at Buffalo.
OTHER ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS
He was elected founding president of Gurukul corporation during 1989-1990. This is a nonprofit charitable organization formed by the Indian students at State University of New York at Buffalo that supports schools for underprivileged children in rural India.
LANGUAGES
Has a fluent knowledge of Hindi and English. A working knowledge of French, Russian, Urdu, and Sanskrit. He has also studied Latin in Dudley Grammar School, U.K.
Download Dr. Shukla’ Biography in French
CONTACT
He can be contacted at:-
35, Nandnagar Colony, ITI Road,
B.H.U., Varanasi, 221005, INDIA
Ph (India):- +91-9452286673 (mobile/WhatsApp)
krishnakantshukla@ gmail.com
