Vidhushi Jyoti Hegde is the first and only woman player of Rudra Veena in the world. She is an accomplished Rudraveena and Sitar artiste from Khandarbani Gharana. Rudraveena is world heritage instrument protected and promoted by the UNESCO. The Rudra Veena or the Been is considered the great grandfather of all stringed instruments in the Indian subcontinent.
Jyoti Hegde was born and brought up in Sirsi – a small town in Karnataka’s Uttar Kannada district. She pursued her learning in Music from a very young age of 12 and it was at the age of 16 she started her first encounter with music when she decided to take up training in sitar as a university subject. She is a Grade-A artist of Rudra Veena and Sitar with the All India Radio and regularly sought after for concerts. The Rudra veena was an instrument surrounded by much superstition and folklore about the many difficulties faced by its practitioners and absolutely no woman was ever allowed in those patriarchal times to even touch it, let alone play it. So it was by passing through the fire of many hurdles, superstitions, immense difficulties and opposition that Jyoti ji finally managed to move ahead persevering and unflinching in her one minded pursuit, to fully love and cherish the Rudra Veena.