nagpur the city may not have thrown up any great classical musician but it has always held significance as a destination for performers nagpur has been known for its appreciative audience and artists who came to perform here were honoured and heard with enthusiasm there was this belief that if a musician can win the audience of nagpur he will be a success anywhere in the country says music teacher narayanrao mangrulkar who has researched on musical traditions of vidarbhafrom the 30s to 70s there were many maestros like mallikarjun mansoor pt jasraj and ustad amir khan who gave performances in the homes of the rich and upper middle class especially in the mahal area baburao deshmukh an extremely affluent resident invited renowned artists from across the country to perform at his house at least three times a week it was he who created this environment in which listening and learning music thrived says mangrulkarsuch was the popularity of these mehfils that listeners themselves were tempted to indulge by way of learning vocal and instrumental music this led to many music schools springing up in this area the more famous among them being chatur sangeet vidyalaya and guru gayan vadyanalay both located at badkas chowk and sharda sangeet vidyalaythose were the days when chitra talkies was an auditorium where a number of cultural performances would take place says violinist pravin kaole whose father vishnupant kaole had started a music school in 1953though maximum number of music schools were concentrated in mahal a few also sprang up in adjacent areas of itwari and sitabuldi says mangrulkar what also contributed to this culture were a long line of dedicated teachers prabhakar khadnavis bhaiyyaji wazalwar and pathak guruji who came from gwalior had trained some very fine vocalists he saysbut it was at shriram sangeet vidyalay at sitabuldi where shankarrao sapre trained two of the most famous musicians from the city both vasanstrao deshpande and c ramchandra whose real name was ramchandra chitalkar were his students he sayssapre trained young boys and presented their programmes during ganesh festival in one such event master vinayak the doyen of marathi cinema and father of actor nanda heard them and asked sapre if he could take them to mumbai both became famous recalls mangrulkarthe movement towards western nagpur had not begun till the 70s the culture of learning music had spread and people wanted a school close to their homes says aparna agnihotri head of the music department at morris college who had her initial training at chatur sangeet vidyalayi learnt music from amrutrao nistane who had founded this school those were the days of simplicity we would sit on the floor and learn i paid a monthly fee of rs30 but there was utmost sincerity on part of the teacher and students too and music was taught and learnt with devotion she saysthe bhoslas too where big patrons of music and helped spread this culture in mahal says tara vilayachi a teacher in wardha whose