Music comes to Sharma like her mother tongue - and just like a language, she is always looking to express herself through her music.

"The best thing about Hindustani music," Vidushi Sunanda Sharma observes, "is its ability to spread happiness and devotion." A torchbearer of the Benarasi gharana in India, Sharma is a leading classical music vocalist, specialising in khayal, tappa, thumri, dadra and chaiti. A classical music artist is often a disciple first, artist later. Sunanda's first guru was her father Pt. Sudarshan Sharma, who taught her in Himachal Pradesh, where she was born.