Come celebrate Diwali with us in Northern Virginia (near Dulles Airport).

Program:

New York Tabla Ensemble
(Arjun Patel, Vibhaav Sharma, Noelina Arceniegas,
Shwe Than Kyo),
Juilee Joshi (vocal),
New Jersey Tabla Ensemble
(Harshal Joshi, Shiv Sharma, Keyur Thakar, Ishaan Freeman),
Aditya Bala (tabla solo),
Harshal Joshi (vocal),
Abhiraman Senthilkumar (tabla solo), 
Mahilan Guha (tabla solo),
Taarun Ganesh (vocal)
Ramakrishna Gopinath (mridangam)
Vishnu Sreehari (violin),
Brandon Ram (tabla solo)
Kanjonavo Sabud (sitar)
Siddharth Komaragiri (tabla) 

Special attractions: 

Tabla Beats by Siddharth Komaragiri
Vocal Recital: Ms. Sanghamitra Chatterjee,
Manav Khurana (tabla)
Indian Classical Guitar: Suman Laha,
Monir Hussain (tabla).

This Chhandayan Baithak Concert will be presented by the Virginia chapter of Chhandayan.

Tabla solo by Shrinath Iyer and Kathak Dance: Shubra Sinha

Admission Free

Shrinath Iyer is a tabla student of Debu Nayak and Samir Chatterjee

Shubra Sinha

Shubhra Sinha is an exponent of the Indian Classical Dance form - Kathak. With over 30 years of training from some of India's foremost Gurus she has performed extensively in India, UK and the US. Shubhra started her Kathak training from her mother, the internationally renowned and awarded musicologist- Smt. Manjari Sinha. She then pursued Kathak for the next 10 years under Smt. Kapila Raj (sister-in-law of the legendary Pt. Lacchu Maharaj) at Kathak Kendra Lucknow, followed by 2 years under Guru Munna Lal Shukla at Kathak Kendra Delhi, and then for the past 20 years under Smt. Anuradha Nag, a senior disciple of Pt. Birju Maharajji. She has also participated in many Kathak workshops by Birju Maharaj & Smt. Saswati Sen, Smt. Kumudini Lakhia, and Shri. Vishal Krishna. Shubhra has presented lecture-demonstrations about Kathak at multiple forums in the San Francisco Bay Area. Shubhra is also a trained Indian Classical Vocalist with a Vishaarad from Bhatkhande College of Music, and comes from a family of educationalists and artists, having learnt many Indian Classical art forms initially from her mother.

Shubhra moved to Reston, VA in June 2018 to be closer to her family. She continues to be a senior performer with the Tarangini School of Dance in the Bay Area, under the guidance of Smt Anuradha Nag. She has also started collaborating and attending classes with local Kathak artists like Smt. Purvi Bhal.

Shubhra mentors underprivileged children in the Indian Classical Arts at the Ashwini Charitable Trust, in Bangalore India. When she is not busy pursuing her passion for Indian Classical Music and Dance, Shubhra enjoys her professional career as a Strategic Marketing Advisor for high-energy Silicon Valley software startups.

Kathak Dance - Bratati Saha
Sarode - Soumya Chakraverty
Tabla - Debu Nayak

This Chhandayan Baithak Concert will be presented by the Virginia chapter of Chhandayan. It will feature a dance Kathak recital by Bratati Saha and a Sarode recital by Soumya Chakraverty. Debu Nayak will accompany both on the tabla.

Admission Free

Bratati Saha

Bratati Saha is an accomplished artist, educator, and performer of the Indian classical dance form, Kathak. She has been pursuing the Lucknow Gharana of Kathak for the last two decades. Also, She is the founder & artistic director of Arpan Dance Academy, VA, U.S.A. https://arpandance.weebly.com/ 

Bratati started to learn Kathak at the age of four under Guru Lakhan Nandi. With this initial establishment, Guru Santosh Maharaj groomed her up under the tender care and extraordinary training of Kathak Dance.

At the age of fourteen, she had completed her Nritya Visharad in dance from Banga Bharati. Banga Bharati which awarded her with a silver medal for outstanding performance in Kathak. Also, she did her second bachelor degree in Kathak dance from Pracheen Kala Kendra and was awarded with a merit performance.

From then she has presented numerous Kathak dance performance in different parts of India and abroad.

She has the had the privilege to learn Kathak from renowned maestros, such as Vidushi Madhumita Roy, Guru Santosh Maharaj, Dr. Ranjana Srivastava and Pandit Birju Maharaj.  Bratati Saha has been invited to present solo performances at prestigious events in the nation and internationally, such as Indo-German Society in Germany, the 2007 International Women’s Peace Conference in TX, Wolf Trap, the Kennedy Memorial Museum in TX, the Indian Embassy, 33 Ambassador Ball, along with outstanding performances in India, such as the Ghaat Sandhya, Varanasi, Gyanmancha Kolkata etc.

Currently, she is a Chairperson of IDEA (Indian dance educators association) in D.C. Metropolitan Area http://ideadancers.org/

She is very clear about her objectives during her performance to portray the diverse Indian Traditional rituals and aesthetic values that form the very core of extraordinary Indian culture.

 Further, she is much committed to developing Indian Dance. She believes that dance is a form of self-expression besides being self-realization and considers that dance is one of the many advanced forms of universal communication in it exquisite linguistics of performance recital. But all the same, she feels that there is much more to be accomplished and has realized and need to develop the form of dance further in order to contribute towards making this special art of communication rather easily accessible to the world, at large.

Awards & Acknowledgements:
•             2020 Winner of the India Monsoon Festival dance competition in the Young Talent Artist Category. From the event, she has been honored to perform as a guest artist at the Bharat Sanskriti Utsab 2020 at Kolkata India, and is Privileged to Participate at the International Festival of Thailand/Dubai.

•             Since the Corvid outbreak, she has held public masterclasses to continue pursuing performing arts.  I led the "Learn from the Master Series" Kathak segment – conducted by Indian Embassy, Washington DC, USA

•             Won World dance competition – PG Parks and Recreation and performed solo at Public Playhouse.

Soumya Chakraverty – Sarode

Based in Washington DC, Soumya is an established Sarod player who proudly carries the mantle of the Shahjahanpur Gharana, one of the oldest surviving lineages in instrumental music in northern India.

He took up the Sarode at an early age under the guidance of Pt. Samarendra Nath Sikdar, a disciple of the legendary Sarode maestro, Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra. The playing style of this gharana, has a unique blend of the Rababiya (derived from the Rabab) and Gayaki (derived from Hindustani vocal music) styles.

Soumya blossomed as a young artist on All India Radio Calcutta between 1990 and 1995. During a brief stint in Australia for a couple of years in the nineties while pursuing his MBA, he truly established himself as a mature instrumentalist, and also began to collaborate with other forms of world music.
For nearly two decades, Soumya has been performing throughout the US, as well as touring Australia and Mexico. He has performed in major cities such as Cleveland, New York, Princeton, Seattle, and his home town of Washington DC, drawing packed audiences and earning rave reviews. In addition to pure Hindustani he continues to work with other music genres such Classical Carnatic (south Indian), flamenco, jazz and latin American percussion. His recent concert and interview at the Library of Congress has gone into the archives of this prestigious institution. Other performances of note, include Hindustani-Carnatic Jugalbandi at the Embassy of India in Washington DC, a collaboration with Ghazal in a program series titled From Ghalib to Gulzar, and a fusion project combining Rabindrasangeet (Tagore songs), Hindusthani classical music, classical Jazz, and West African percussion in a concert titled ‘Sea Thy Melody’. He recently returned to the US from a concert tour of India, Australia and New Zealand where he performed extensively throughout.
Despite having a regular career in banking and risk management, Soumya’s love and passion in music pushes him to continue to exploring new frontiers and challenges.
Soumya’s website: http://sarodia.com/generation/soumya-chakraverty/

Debu Nayak

Devapriya Nayak (Debu) was born in West Bengal, India, and began learning tabla at the age of three from his grandfather, Chaudhury Kausalya Nandan, who was an accomplished pakhawaj and tabla player of the Punjab Gharana. Later, Debu became a disciple of Pt. Radhakanta Nandi of the Benaras Gharana. In 1981, Debu came to the US to pursue higher studies and continued his tabla taalim from Maestros like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Anindo Chattergee and Pt. Samir Chatterjee.

Currently Debu remains a Ganda Bandha shishya of Pt. Samir Chatterjee. Debu is an accomplished soloist and accompanist. He has performed with renowned artists like Pt. Vinayak Torvi, Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar, Habib Wali Mohammad, Asif Ali Khan, Shahanaz Begum, Gaurav Mazumdar, Partha Bose, Mitali Banerjee-Bhawmik, Tulika Ghosh and many others.

Recently, his tabla was featured in a collaborative effort of Indian Classical Music and Jazz album titled Probe. Debu, along with the members of Probe, have also performed at the Smithsonian Institution and at the Kennedy center Eisenhour theater.

He is also an active participant/teacher of the Washington DC Chapter of Chhandayan, a tabla school dedicated to the promotion of tabla and Indian Classical Music in the Washington DC metro area.

His new CD is called 3D – three Disciples CD is available at Chhandayan store and Tabla Rising is also available from tablaguy.com.

Vocal - Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar

Tabla - Amod Dandawate

Harmonium - Kedar Nephade

Vidushi Shruti Sadolikar

Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar is a ‘Top Grade’ artist of Akashwani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan (TV).  She was initiated into music and groomed by her father, Pt. Wamanrao Sadolikar, a disciple of Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and Ustad Alladiya Khan (Founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana) and his son Ustad Bhurji Khan.  Shrutiji trained for 12 years under Ustad Gullubhai Jasdanwala, renowned for his repository of rare compositions and complex ragas of the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana. Shrutiji continued to learn from Ustad Bhurji Khan’s son, Ustad Azizuddin Khan, till his demise in August 2011.

Shrutiji is a graduate of Mumbai University. She received the Sangeet Visharad from Akhila Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal with distinction and did her Master’s degree in Music from SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, with Distinction, winning the Bhaskarbua Bakhale Prize.  She is presently the Vice Chancellor of Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University, Lucknow.  Shruti is a much sought after concert artist and sis well known as a scholar musician.

Shrutiji has received a large number of prizes and awards which include the Raj Hans Puraskar, 2017; ‘Icons of Maharashtra’, Mumbai; the Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan Award, for her contribution to the Education Sector; the Jewel of Ruia Award from her alma mater, the Ramnarain Ruia College, Mumbai; the Swarayogini Prabha Atre Award, 2013; the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Music, 2011; The Sangeet Shiromani Award by Kashi Sangeet Samaj, Banaras, 2008; The Shanmukha Sangeet Shiromani Award by Shanmukhanand Sangeet Sabha, Mumbai, 2002. Shrutiji was awarded the Gopinath Savkar Prize, Talpade Memorial Prize and Pendharkar Prize for best production, best direction and best music direction for the play ‘Sangeet Tulsidas’ in 2001. She received the prestigious Dagar Gharana Sanman, from the Maharana Mewar Foundation, Udaipur, 1998.

SCHOLARSHIPS
Shrutiji’s achievements include The Bhulabhai Memorial Institute Scholarship, 1975; Kesarbai Kerkar Scholarship (National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai), 1976-78; The Homi Bhabha Fellowship (National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai), 1994-96.

ASSIGNMENTS

1. She has been a visiting professor at the Rotterdam Conservatorium in Netherlands.
2. Shrutiji was a Guru at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata;
3. She was a visiting professor at the Department of Music, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai;
4. She was a professor at the Department of Music, University of Mumbai.
5.  Shrutiji is a guide for many research students for their PhD in Music.
6. She has delivered lecture-demonstrations on various aspects of Indian Classical Music in many schools and universities in India;
7. She has also toured for delivering lectures on music in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Switzerland, Scotland, Germany, Mauritius, UAE, Muscat, Kuwait, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Australia, etc.
8. Shrutiji has and still continues to produce research based thematic programs on various aspects of Indian culture and music.
9. She has been contributing to various research journals and magazines by way of written articles on various subjects regarding Indian Classical Music and Performing Arts.
10.  Her educational CD, ‘The Raga Guide’, was produced and marketed by Nimbus Records, UK.
11.  She has been recorded by prestigious record companies in and out of India.
12.  As a tribute to her father, Shrutiji revived the musical play SANGEET TULSIDAS after 60 years (Pt. Wamanraoji had played the protagonist in the play in 1930).
13.  As producer-music director- coordinator, Shrutiji presented the Marathi musical play SANGEET SAMSHAY KALLOL at the WORLD MUSIC THEATRE FESTIVAL in Netherlands, April 1999.

Amod Dandawate

Amod Dandawate has been primarily trained in the Farrukhabad style of Tabla playing. He was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India, and later migrated to the USA. He was initiated into Tabla by his father Dr. Vasantrao Dandawate, a disciple of the legendary Maestro Ustad Amir Hussain Khan. He started playing Tabla at a very young age but seriously pursued the art form only after completing his Bachelors degree in Engineering. At that point, he received initial guidance and encouragement from Shafaat Khan while performing as an accompanist and then spent some time taking lessons from Ustad Zakir Hussain. Having settled in New Jersey he has been receiving advanced training, since 2001, as a disciple of Pt. Samir Chatterjee, a well known Maestro of the Farrukhabad gharana (http://www.tabla.org).

Besides performing solo Tabla, Amod has accompanied several eminent artists and keeps a busy performance schedule. Amod also hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.

Kedar Nephade

Born on January 10, 1972, Kedar Naphade received preliminary training in Hindustani Classical Music from his grandfather, Shri Dadasaheb Naphade and from Shri Arvind Gajendragadkar.

Since he was 10 years of age, Kedar has had the great good fortune of training under the loving and expert guidance of Pt. Tulsidas Borkar, one of the topmost harmonium players in India today. Under his nurturing guidance, Kedar has imbibed the unique style of solo harmonium performance developed by Pt. Borkarji’s guru, Madhukar Pednekar or P. Madhukar. P. Madhukar was a genius with tremendous mastery over the instrument that is to date unsurpassed. His glorious tradition, which utilizes the strengths of the harmonium to the extreme, is presented to the connoisseur today by his stalwart disciples like Pt. Tulsidas Borkar and Pt. Anant Kemkar and the next generation of disciples consisting of Sudhir Nayak, Seema Mestri-Shirodkar, Kedar Naphade and others.

Kedar has also had the privilege of training under Smt. Padmavati Shaligram-Gokhale, a veteran singer of the Atrauli-Jaipur gharana. She played a pivotal role in his musical development and sowed in him the seed that developed into a passionate love for the vocal art form. As such, Kedar’s music derives inspiration from the stylistic genius and dexterous wizardry of P. Madhukar as well as the character of the traditional Hindustani vocal art form, especially of the Gwalior and Jaipur gharanas. In addition to classical music, Kedar also plays the semi-classical forms of Marathi Natyasangeet (Stage Music), Bhajans, Thumri, Dhun etc.

Kedar has performed harmonium solo and has accompanied vocalists at numerous concerts in India, Europe and in the U.S. including prestigious festivals and venues such as the Alladiya Khan Smruti Samaroha, Dadar Matunga Cultural Center, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space etc. He has accompanied artists of high caliber such as his guru Smt. Padmavati Shaligram-Gokhale, Pt. Phiroz Dastur, Pt. Jasraj, Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Smt. Laxmi Shankar and others. Kedar continues to train from Pt. Tulsidas Borkar and maintains an active concert schedule in the U.S.

Sitar - Kalyanjit Das

Tabla - Monir Hossain

Kalyanjit Das

Born in a highly enriched musical family of Kolkata, Kalyanjit is one of the brightest young sitarists in the field of Indian Classical Music. His music primarily signifies the ‘Senia Maihar Gharana’ style of playing. Maintaining the true heritage of Hindustani Classical Music, his aesthetical approach along with resonant power and delicate intricacies with the rhythm naturally captivate the listener.

Kalyanjit represents the fourth generation of his family as a Musician. His great-grandfather Late Shri Bimal Chandra Das was an ‘Esraj’ player. His grandfather Late Shri Sailen Das learnt Sitar from Late Pt.Laxman Bhattacharya of the ‘Bishnupur Gharana’ and then from Late Pt.Ravi Shankar. His father, one of the greatest Sitar maestros across the globe, Pt.Kushal Das learnt from Late Shri Sailen Das, Shri Santanu Das (Pt. Das’s Uncle), Pt. Sanjoy Banerjee, Late Pt.Ajoy Sinha Roy, Late Pt. Manas Chakraborty and Late Pt. Ramkrishna Basu. Kalyanjit’s maternal grandfather Late Shri Jugal Kishore Sarkar was an established tabla maestro, one of the senior students of Late Ud. Keramatullah Khan.

Kalyanjit started learning the sitar at the age of three under the guidance of his father Pt.Kushal Das, and continues his rigorous and intensive talim under him. Kalyanjit also receives training in advance sitar techniques and art of music-making from Pt.Sanjoy Bandopadhyay. His mother  Smt. Sujata Das initiated him in vocal training at a young age and now he  also receives guidance from Ud.Rashid Khan as well. He is cared about the different Talas, Layas & their variations by Sri Biplab Bhattacharya, Pt.Subhankar Banerjee, & the famous Tabla Wizard Pt.Shankar Ghosh.

Kalyanjit started playing solo concerts from a young age and has also performed duet-sitar recitals with his father Pt. Kushal Das in India as well as abroad, some of which include:
• 'Sitar Festival' at Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan (London)
• RKM, Golpark (Kolkata)
• Shakhri Begum Memorial Trust (Kolkata)
• The Nehru Centre (London)
• Kalashree Music Circle (Kolkata)
• Sangeet Piyasi (Kolkata)
• Ballygunge Maitreyee Circle (Kolkata)
• Shrutinandan (Kolkata)
• Live In India (Kolkata)
• ITC-SRA Festival at Nazrul Kala Kshetre (Agartala)
• Moore Avenue Music Conference (Kolkata)
• NCBS (Bengaluru)
• Raga Tapasya Festival (Pondicherry)
• Raga Spirit Festival (Los Angeles)
• SAPTHAK (Bengaluru)
• Sangeet Ashram (Kolkata)
• MERU (Seelisberg, Switzerland)

Kalyanjit has been fortunate to perform with eminent Tabla maestros Pt.Swapan Choudhury, Pt.Kumar Bose, Pt.Arup Chatterjee,  Pt. Subhankar Banerjee, Pt.Parimal Chakraborty, Pt.Abhijit Banerjee and has a private album “ETHNIC...A Tribute to Pt. Ravi Shankar” with Pt. Kumar Bose.

Kalyanjit stood 1st in the All India Radio Music Competition in 2013 and was invited to perform at NCPA(Mumbai) & was honoured the "Ravi Koppikar Memorial Award" by The International Foundation for Fine Arts.

He is a "B-High" musician of All India Radio & Doordarshan.

He has received the prestigious Jnana Pravaha Scholarship in 2012.

In 2014, Kalyanjit received the National (Senior) Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India.

Kalyanjit has toured extensively in France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and USA.

Monir Hossain

Monir has established himself as a dynamic tabla performer both as a solo and as an able accompanist with numerous prestigious performances to his credit.

He was born in a musical family, son of ustad Hafiz Hossain and grandson of late ustad Kader Bux of Murshidabad, West Bengal. He is a senior disciple of Tabla Maestro Pandit Samar Saha.

Some of his notable performances are with Sarod Maestro Pt. Budhadev Das Gupta, Legendary (Late) Ustad Villayet Khan, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, Lakshmi Shankar, Ustad Fateh Ali khan, Pandit Rajiv Taranath, recently with sitar Maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez and numerous other musicians. 

Some of the major vanues include the Simthsonian Institution, Washington Conservatory of Music (WCM), Toranto Public Library, Colombia University, University of Alabama, Statson University, University of Maryland (UMBC) and numerous other prestigious venues.   Monir also performed tabla solo in Berhampore, West Bengal, India on the occassion of his Grandfather (Late) Ustad Kader Buksh's birthday. Some of the noteworthy vocal performers from Pakistan and Bangladesh that he has performed with include Pakistan's Pop sensation Alamgir,  Shahanaj Rahmatullah, Sabiha Mahboob and Fatema Tuz-zuhrah among many others.

Sarangi - Kamal Sabri

Tabla - Monir Hussain

Kamal Sabri

Sarangi Maestro Kamal Sabri is the son of Sarangi Legend Ustad Sabri Khan and is carrying forward the rich legacy of the Sania Gharana of Moradabad.  Kamal is the seventh generation of a distinguished family of tradition musicians. He was initiated and trained by his father in the style of the Sania Gharana of Rampur, Moradabad starting at the tender age of 5. Very soon this child prodigy made waves in the musical world with his talent. His musical brilliance and talent as a seasoned accompanist gained immense popularity amongst eminent classical vocalists.

Now an "A" Graded Artist of All India Radio, Kamal is a regular performer on All India Radio and Indian National Television. He has appeared in many Radio Sangeet Sammelans and National Programmes of Music. He has won several awards including 'The Best Instrumentalist'(2000), Surmani'(2001), Sangeet Bhushan Award(2002),'The Young Maestro Award' (1999) conferred by the Indo-Sri Lankan Cultural Council and the 'Young Ustad Khitab (Title) (2005) at the Prestigious Harballabh Music Festival.
Kamal has many other achievements to his credit, including, the privilege to be the youngest Indian musician to participate in "Les 24 heures du raga" (the 24 hours Millennium concert) in Paris, France. He made a record of sorts in that Festival by playing 9 concerts with the all the vocalists, leaving the audience spellbound.  Kamal was invited several times to showcase his musical skills by the BBC, Radio France, Radio Pakistan, Radio Switzerland, Radio Italy, Radio Barbados, Finnish Broadcasting Company, and NRK Norway.

Today he is well known in the International cultural scene. While honing his skills in the traditional style of music, he has also adapted to the changing musical scenario and is constantly trying to set new trends and standards within his tradition. He has worked with renowned musicians like Zakir Hussain, Fateh Ali Khan, Hossam Ramzy, Ricky Niles from Barbados (West Indies), Jukka Tolonen from Finland, the Rondo Vienna Orchestra from Austria.  He performed with Jan Garbarek for the King of Norway.  Kamal has recorded his genre of music for famous Bands like Massive Attack, One Giant Leap, also for Hollywood and Bollywood films.  This multifaceted musician is also a composer, who has delivered powerfully ambient scores for documentary films, such as The Big Question featuring Mel Gibson and Monica Bellucci, Bollywood Boulevard, Mystics of Sufism for BBC, and Red Cross, Mother Teresa. Kamal has also composed music for several albums and orchestras like Dance of the Desert, the Sabri Ensemble, Sarangi Funk, Ellam Anggekkai (South Indian Album), Tera Naam, the Indian Contemporary Music Orchestra, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, to name a few.  Kamal continues to explore the vast realm of the music world yet retaining the purity of the Indian Classical Music thorough the strains of his Sarangi.

Monir Hossain

Monir Hossain has established himself as a dynamic tabla performer both as a solo and as an able accompanist with numerous prestigious performances to his credit.
He was born in a musical family, son of ustad Hafiz Hossain and grandson of late ustad Kader Bux of Murshidabad, West Bengal. He is a senior disciple of Tabla Maestro Pandit Samar Saha.  

Some of his notable performances were with Sarod Maestro Pt. Budhadev Das Gupta, Legendary (Late) Ustad Vilayet Khan, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, Lakshmi Shankar, Ustad Fateh Ali khan, Pandit Rajiv Taranath, recently with sitar Maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez and numerous other musicians.

Some of the major venues at which he has played include the Smithsonian Institution, Washington Conservatory of Music (WCM), Toranto Public Library, Colombia University, University of Alabama, Statson University, University of Maryland (UMBC) and numerous other prestigious venues.   Monir also performed tabla solo in Berhampore, West Bengal, India on the occassion of his Grandfather (Late) Ustad Kader Buksh's birthday. Some of the noteworthy vocal performers from Pakistan and Bangladesh that he has performed with include Pakistan's Pop sensation Alamgir,  Shahanaj Rahmatullah, Sabiha Mahboob and Fatema Tuz-zuhrah among many others.  

Tabla - Samir Chatterjee

Join Chhandayan's founder for an intense morning of practice and learning.

Samir Chatterjee

Samir Chatterjee is a virtuoso Tabla player from India. He travels widely across the world throughout the year performing in numerous festivals as a soloist or with other outstanding musicians from both Indian and non-Indian musical traditions. Samir performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway in 2007. He also performed a few times at the United Nations General Assembly. His compositions are widely acclaimed as well as his writings. Samir is a firm believer in the transforming effect of music on the society and all aspects of his work reflects this conviction.    

    Chatterjee began his studies early with Pandit Bankim Ghosh, Pt. Balaram Mukherjee, Pt. Rathin Dhar and Mohammad Salim. His later formation as a musician occurred under the guidance of Pt. Amalesh Chatterjee (since 1966) and Pt. Shyamal Bose (since 1984). All of Samir's teachers have been from the Farrukhabad Gharana (school) of Tabla-playing, which he now represents.
          
    Samir is rated ‘A’ as an artiste of Indian national radio and television. He can be heard on numerous recordings featuring as soloist, accompanying many of India's greatest musicians and in collaboration with western musicians of outstanding caliber. In concert Samir has accompanied many of India's greatest musicians including Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ud. Vilayat Khan, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Pt. V.G. Jog, Pt . Shivkumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Ud. Amjad Ali Khan, Ud. Salamat Ali Khan, Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, Ud. Aashis Khan, Dr. L. Subramanium, Ud. Shujat Khan, Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Ud. Rashid Khan, Pt. Tejendra N. Mazumdar, Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya, to name only a few.
          
    Samir Chatterjee lives in the New York-New Jersey area, and has been a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Non-Indian music, in his own creations and others as well. He performs with Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Branford Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Dave Douglas, Steve Gorn, Glen Velez, Boby Sanabria, Ben Verdery, Dance Theater of Harlem, Boston Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Ethos Percussion group, Da Capo Chamber Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva and other jazz, classical and avant guard musicians and ensembles. He is member of jazz trio SYNC with Ned Rothenberg and Jerome Harris and quintet Inner Diaspora together with Mark Feldman and Eric Friedlander. He also collaborates with Sufi-Rock singer Salman Ahmad of Junoon from Pakistan. He is also the composer and director of Indo-Flame and Nacho Nacho - both blends of Indian and Flamenco dance and music, Chhand-Anand - a world percussion ensemble and Dawn to Dusk and Beyond – on the effect of music on humans and nature. He performs with Sanjay Mishra on his CD "Blue Incantation" featuring Jerry Garcia as guest artist.
          
    Samir Chatterjee has been teaching for the last 35 years and many of his students are established performers. He is the Founder-Director of CHHANDAYAN, an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Indian music and culture. He has authored a comprehensive 654-page book entitled ‘A Study of Tabla’ and a guide book to Indian music titled ‘Music of India’. He is on the faculty at Yale University, Manhattan School of Music, University of Pittsburgh, New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and University of Bridgeport in CT. He also contributes to several newspapers and periodicals. He won gold medal for his proficiency in a musical examination and has two master degrees, in English and History.

      Since June, 2008 Samir has been working relentlessly towards the musical revival of Afghanistan. He has made several trips to the country working with different levels of the society and administration and within a very short period of time he has been able to make a remarkable difference in the cultural life of the country.