Manoj Govindraj

Manoj discovered his passion for music at a young age and began formal training at seven. His early initiation was at the age of three, singing bhajans on a pilgrimage to Shirdi. At eleven, he started professional Hindustani music training under Mrs. Vineeta Tembe and had mentors like Pandit Prabhakar Karekar, Pandit Ramesh Prem, and Mrs. Geeta Prem. He received a scholarship for Hinndustani classical vocal music from the CCRT from 1988 to 1995.

Manoj earned a Master of Fine Arts in Hindustani Classical Vocal Music in 1999 from Mumbai University, where he also became a gold medalist and rank holder receiving the Pandit Bhimsen Joshi scholarship at the post-graduate level in 1998-99. His accolades include the Sur Singar Samsad Award in 1995 for light vocal.

After coming to the US in 2004, Manoj joined as a faculty of Hindustani Classical Music at the Academy of Indian Music (AIM) located in New Jersey, after working at the prestigious academy for 10 years, Manoj embarked on a new journey which he’s continuing till this day. Currently, Manoj teaches Hindustani classical and light music (vocal and harmonium) at the Swarras School of Music.

His repertoire spans Hindustani classical (Khayal), semi-classical (Thumri, Dadra), bhajans, ghazals, and film songs in various languages, including Hindi and Marathi, along with Marathi Abhang, Bhavgeet, and Natya Sangeet.

Manoj has been performing since 1989, with shows in India (Mumbai, Pune, Kerala, Rajkot, Belgaum and Hyderabad), the US (New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, California, and Colorado) , UK (London and Norwich) and Singapore.

He has also conducted several lecture demonstrations on topics such as “The Thaat Series,” “Music Appreciation,” and “Introduction to Hindustani Music” at universities like Keane University (NJ) and the University of South Florida.