Kathak Dance - Antara Datta
Sitar - Michael Griska
Tabla Solo - Vikram Mukherjee
This is a Chhandayan Baithak Concert presented by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania chapter of Chhandayan.
Note - new date - this concert was originally scheduled for October 24.
Admission Free
Antara Dutta
Antara Datta started learning Kathak at the tender age of five from Srimati Laxmi Bannerjee in Kolkata, India. She holds a double diploma in Kathak from the Bangiya Sangeet Parishad in Kolkata and the Prayag Sangeet Samiti in Allahabad, India. She received advanced training in the Lucknow gharana of Kathak from "Sringar Mani" Srimati Anuradha Nag (a senior disciple of Pandit Birju Maharaj and the artistic director of the Tarangini School of dance, San Jose, California). To hone her skills further Antara Datta also receives training from Kathak maestro Pandit Birju Maharaj and Vidushi Saswati Sen, during her annual trips to India at Kalashram, New Delhi. In addition, she regularly visits Mahagami (a dance Gurukul in Aurangabad, India) to receive intensive training from Guru Parwati Dutta.
Antara is the artistic director of Anga Kala Kathak Academy, which has branches in the Pacific Northwest, North East and Central Ohio and also in Pittsburgh, PA. She held an adjunct faculty position of Kathak at the Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, Washington in Fall 2010 and then at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio in Winter, 2014 and also taught master classes at University of Akron, OH in February 2017.
Antara believes that learning Indian classical dance is a lifelong experience. She relentlessly strives for perfection. She has attended numerous workshop by the legendary Guru Pandit Birju Maharaj. To gain better control on laya she took laykari lessons from the tabla virtuoso Pandit Samir Chaterjee and currently undergoing training under Pandit Divyang Vakil. Antara Data has performed extensively in different parts of the USA, as well as India. The list includes solo and group performances in Cleveland(Ohio) ,Columbus(Ohio), Canton(Ohio), Pittsburgh(Pennsylvania), Seattle (Washington), Tacoma (Washington), Olympia (Washington), Chicago (Illinois), Grays Lake (Illinois) and Houston (Texas). She and her students have been regular performers at the Northwest Folk Life Festival in Seattle as well as the Asian Festival and the India Fest in Cleveland. In July 2012, she performed solo Kathak with live music at the Triguna Sen Auditorium in Kolkata, India. In 2016 she performed at the Madison Square Garden, New York, USA with Pandit Birju Maharaji’s Company. In 2017, she performed at the International Dance Festival (BharathNriytasav) atVishakhapatnam, India.In 2019 she performed at the Kalpashree festival(Hyderabad, India), Bharat Sanskriti Utsab (Kolkata, India) and Naadamand Nrityalaya (New Delhi, India). Her innovative choreography has brought together seemingly unrelated dance-forms (such as Kathak and Tap Dance, Kathak and Flamenco, or Kathak and Ballet in beautiful jugalbandi’s, captivating audiences across cultures.
Michael Griska
Michael Griska performs and teaches North Indian Classical Music better known as Hindustani Music on the sitar and surbahar. He is a disciple of world-renowned sarod player, K. Sridhar. Michael is currently residing in the Pittsburgh area giving concerts, lectures, and lessons.
Some of his experiences include: playing the tanpura and keeping tala for his Guruji at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and at the 2012 Stockholm Sangeet Conference in Stockholm, Sweden - performing sitar and surbahar at K. Sridhar concerts in various cities in North Carolina - performing sitar and surbahar at numerous house concerts and temples in India, Israel, Denmark, France, Sweden, and U.K. - performing for Indian weddings at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and William Penn Omni in Pittsburgh PA, at Duke University in Durham NC, and in the Biltmore House in Asheville NC.
Despite all these achievements, Michael’s greatest accomplishment has been learning the rare and dying art of Javari (bridge filing), as this has allowed him to maintain his own instruments and provide the overtones that are the emotional essence of Hindustani Music, the Shruti.
Vikram Mukherjee
Vikram Mukherjee is a tabla player and student at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and Chemistry as well as a certificate in the Philosophy of Medicine, with hopes of becoming a physician. Outside of academics he is a founding member and vice-president of Pitt Sangeet and a research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Lawrenceville. Having been exposed to both Indian and Western music by his parents from a young age, he has had training in violin, drum- set and tabla. Initially, his first exposure to tabla came from Shri John Protopapas at the age of 8 and thereafter continued his tutelage under the mentorship and love of Pt. Samir Chatterjee. He hopes to continue embellishing the wisdom and knowledge of his Guru’s as well as represent Indian classical music for the new generation.