Vocal - Pt. Ritesh Mishra and Pt. Rajnish Mishra
Tabla - Pt. Samir Chatterjee
Harmonium - Anirban Chakrabarty
Pdts. Ritesh and Rajnish Mishra
Duet singing in the Indian Classical Music is considered a very difficult art, for it requires not only individual competence but, great amount of self control to improvise and harmonise at the same time. The Maestros Duo Pt. Ritesh Mishra and Pt. Rajnish Mishra have put in everything to achieve such excellence under the guidance of the Living Legends, the 'Sun and Moon' of the Banaras Gharana, Padma Bhushan Pt. Rajan Misra (Father) and Pt. Sajan Misra (Uncle).
Enliving the sixth generation of the family of great musicians, the Artist brothers are gifted with a very pleasing voice and sensibility for musical notes. Skilled with rich knowledge of Indian Ragas the duos have performed at most prestigious concerts all over the world such as, BBC Proms at Albert Hall, London, Lincoln Centre, NY, USA, closing ceremony of Commonwealth Games, 2002 in Manchester, UK.
They have sung 3rd track 'Mahadeva' in the album called 'Rise', that has been nominated for the prestigious 'Grammy Awards'. 'Top' Grade vocalists of All India Radio and Television, they have been awarded the 'YUVA Ratna Award' for the year 1999, 'Bhavishya Jyoti Award' for the year 2007, 'Sangeet Natak Academy Award' for the year 2008, 'Sangeet Samriddhi Award' 2010 & 'Dynamic Vocalists Duos' Award by Sangam Kala Group 2015.
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.
Samir Chatterjee began his studies early with Pt. 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 of India. 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 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. Nasiruddin Saami, Ud. Shujat Khan, Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Ud. Nishat Khan, Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Pta. Veena Sahashrabuddhe, 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, Joshua Bell, 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. He also collaborates with Sufi-Rock singer Salman Ahmad of Junoon from Pakistan. He is the composer and director of Indo-Flame – a blend of Indian and Flamenco dance and music, Chhand-Anand - a world percussion ensemble, RabiThakur – a ballet on the life of Tagore, Meghadootam – a feature program of music and dance on an ancient Indian poem, 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 four decades and many of his students are established performers. He is the Founding President 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’, a guidebook to Indian music titled ‘Music of India’ and ‘Those Forty Days’, a journal of an austere practice regimen he undertook during the summer of 2016. He is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, University of Pittsburgh and New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. 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. He is the recipient of several awards such as the Sunshine Award, Jadu Bhatta Award and Acharya Varistha Award.
Anirban Chakrabarty
Anirban Chakrabarty hails from a family of Musicians. His father, Amal Chakrabarty is a dedicated vocalist. From his very childhood Anirban was initiated to Hindustani Classical Music by his father. He is a post graduate in music with first class from the Rabindra Bharati University. Although he is a good vocalist, his keen interest in playing Harmonium have driven him under the tutelage of Pandit Manas Chakraborty, the doyen of Kotali Gharana to master himself in the gayaki of Kotali style. He has also keen interest in composing music in lighter forms. The guidance of the Master Musician has already shaped him in well organized Harmonium player, and hoping him to be a musician of high repute in future.
Anirban has to his credit a number of brilliant performances as a harmonium accompanist throughout the country with both upcoming and reputed musicians. Anirban has accompanied musicians of repute like Pandit Manas Chakraborty, Pandit Dinanath Mishra, Pandit Arun Bhaduri, Smt. Kankana Banerjee, Gaan Saraswati Shreela Bandopadhyay, Pandit Madhup Mudgal, Sri. Sarathi Chatterjee, Smt. Ruchira Panda, Sri. Subhasish Mukherjee, Smt. Raka Mukherjee, Sri. Ratan Mohan Sharma and many more.
He is also a regular artist of several television channels. Besides, he is equally adept in playing table, keyboard, guitar and also worked as an arranger for several light music album. Recently popular commercial artists like Indrani Sen, Manomay Bhattacharya, Shampa Kundu, Shubhankar Bhaskar, Sahaj Ma have jointly made album of Modern Bengali Songs and devotional Songs composed and arranged by Anirban. Recently an album of Poetry and songs of TAGORE of Sri Tarun Chakrabarty has been released, arranged by Anirban. Now Anirban is also working as the Lecturer of Music in ‘Vivekananda Teachers Training Institute’ and also as the General Secretary of ‘Sur Sanchayan Sangeet Vidyalaya’, an institute to uphold the diploma courses of various forms of Indian music. Anirban to his credit has accompanied on harmonium with both upcoming and veteran musicians in all major music festivals of our country. He has also visited UK and USA as a harmonium accompanist with Ruchira Panda and earned accolades both from music lovers and connoisseurs.