Mandakini Swain - Vocal
Amod Dandavate - tabla
Pallab Bandyopadhyay - Violin
Amit Chatterjee - tabla
Mandakini Swain
Mandakini Swain is an accomplished Hindustani classical vocalist. She was born into a musical family, and started learning Hindustani Classical vocal music at the tender age of 7 from her father Pandit A. Maheswar Rao. She continued her training, under the able guidance of acclaimed exponent Vidushi Veena Sahashrabudhe. In addition, she also had the privilege of being trained under gurus like - Pandit J.V.S. Rao of Gwalior Gharana, Pandit Madhup Mudgal in New Delhi and Dr. Vikas Kashalkar of Jaipure Gharana in Pune.
Mandakini has been a B-high grade vocal artist of the All India Radio, and is a regular performer on Doordashan TV - the state Broadcaster. She is a well-known artist in Khayal & Devotional songs (in Sanskrit, Hindi, and Odia languages) and has been invited to perform by the Sangeet Natak Akademy, Sahitya Kala Parishad and Kathak Kendra of Delhi and other institutions in india like Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal, Bhubneswar Music Circle, Bhubaneswar etc. She is also regularly associated with the premier music college, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi as examiner. As an accomplished teacher, she devotes valuable time to her disciples in India and abroad to spread classical music. She has held many workshops in Bal Bhawan and schools at New Delhi and other places in India. She was also employed as a vocal teacher in Mahatma Gandhi Institute for cultural cooperation (MGICC), Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on behalf of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations).
Mandakini, has travelled extensively all over the globe including Singapore, Malaysia, Austria, Colombo, South Africa, Mauritius, Muscat, and USA to participate in various prestigious music concerts. She has been performing in USA and Trinidad and Tobago consecutively for last three years. In addition to her performance she has privileged of performing at Rajim Kumbha Mela, Raipur 2018, Chinmaya Mission Washinghton Regional Center USA recently.
For her contribution in the Indian musical world, she has been felicitated by many institutions. and also by the wife of former Prime Minister of India during her performance at Indian independence celebrations for audience at the Lt.Governor of Delhi’s residence. In addition to her solo performance she has rendered her melodious voice in many dance compositions, like that of a trio of Odissi, Kathak and Bharatnatyam by Odissi exponent Madhavi Mudgal, Ms. Prerana Shrimali and the young dancer Ms. Rama Vaidyanathan in New Delhi. Besides being professional performer, Mandakini is also a well respected teacher of Indian classical music, both in India and abroad.
Pallab Bandyopadhyay
Pallab Bandyopadhyay was a disciple of the late music maestro Padma Bhusan Pandit V.G. Jog for 20 years. He holds a M.A. in instrumental music with special honors from Rbindra Bharati University of Kolkata and a B.A. from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata
He is rated as a B-high grade artist in Classical instrumental music (Violin) as a performing artist for ALL INDIA RADIO, Kolkata & DOORDARSHAN and has been performing for AIR for the last 18 years. He is a founder and teacher of the The Heritage School in Kolkata and has been working there for 12 years. He has also been a visiting teacher at the South Point School, Kolkata for 10 years
and was the former Head of the Department of Music at the Lowerence School, Sanawar, Dt. Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India from 1996-2000
He gave lecture demonstrations and workshops at
* Yadovindra Public School, Chandigarh
* Himalayan Academy, Jalpaiguri (W.B.)
* The Lawrence School, Sanawar (H.P.)
* South Point School, Kolkata
* Doon School, Dehradun, Uttarakhand
* Sriram Academy, Gurgaon
Awards & Felecitations
* Felicitated by Bose Institute, Kolkata, Bioinformatics Centre on 14th Dec,2011
* Ranadhir Roy Memorial Award, 2011 from Shantiniketan
* “Ravisudha Sanman” award by Mayor of Agartala, Tripura, 2010
* Felicitated by Calcutta University, Mathematics Department, 2010
* Felicitation by Bangladesh Deputy High Commission of Kolkata on Bangladesh Utshav, 2009
He has toured in Europe and throughout the Indian subcontinent.
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.
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.
Amit Chatterjee
Amit Chatterjee, a highly gifted Tabla player of India, is the nephew, adopted son and disciple of the famous internationally reputed Tabla Maestro Pandit Sankha Chatterjee. Since childhood Amit passed through rigorous training and practice and in the process he became a very special performer of Indian Drum (Tabla) His playing style is a wonderful confluence of Farukkabad Gharana (Ustad Karamatullah Khan) and Punjab Gharana ( Ustad Allarakha Khan).
Amit is an empanelled artist of Indian Council of Cultural Relations(ICCR) and was awarded “TAL MANI” Title by “Sur Singar Samsad” (Mumbai), NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY AWARD. Being one of the busiest Indian Artist of his generation Amit has traveled throughout India, Europe, and the USA.