Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal re­cip­i­ent Mun­gal Patasar has re­ceived an hon­orary doc­tor­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ Fac­ul­ties of Hu­man­i­ties, Ed­u­ca­tion, and Sport.

The renowned mu­si­cian, known for pi­o­neer­ing a fu­sion of In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic with Caribbean rhythms, re­ceived a Doc­tor of Let­ters de­gree on Sat­ur­day.

It is the lat­est in a se­ries of awards Patasar has re­ceived in his stel­lar ca­reer. Hav­ing been award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Gold Medal in 1994, he re­ceived a Cacique Award for Best Orig­i­nal Mu­sic a year lat­er. In 2009, he re­ceived the Queen’s Hall Award for Ex­cel­lence in Mu­sic, and in 2016 he was recog­nised by the Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi In­sti­tute for Cul­tur­al Co­op­er­a­tion for his con­tri­bu­tion to the preser­va­tion and pro­mo­tion of In­di­an cul­ture in the Caribbean.

Ac­cord­ing to the UWI, “Re­cip­i­ent of a Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go award in 1986, Mr Patasar earned a Bach­e­lor of Mu­sic from Ba­naras Hin­du Uni­ver­si­ty and a Mas­ter of Mu­sic from Prayag Sangeet Sami­ti in In­dia, grad­u­at­ing in 1990. Re­turn­ing home, he found­ed the ac­claimed en­sem­ble Mun­gal Patasar and Pan­tar, which has per­formed on pres­ti­gious stages such as the Mon­treux Jazz Fes­ti­val (Switzer­land), Roskilde Fes­ti­val (Den­mark), and St Lu­cia Jazz Fes­ti­val.”

It added that Patasar is “a pi­o­neer­ing mu­si­cian, com­pos­er and cul­tur­al am­bas­sador, Mun­gal Patasar has re­de­fined the sound­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go through his seam­less fu­sion of In­di­an clas­si­cal tra­di­tions and Caribbean rhythms. His mas­tery of the sitar and steel­pan has made him a lead­ing fig­ure in world mu­sic and a sym­bol of cross-cul­tur­al in­no­va­tion.”

Patasar was ho­n­oured along with hun­dreds of oth­er stu­dents as they were con­ferred their de­grees dur­ing the UWI’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny.