Vocal - Koushik Bhattacharya
Tabla - Sandip Ghosh
Harmonium - Kouiik Bhattacharya
Koushik Bhattacharya will sing Raga Bhimpalsi.
The concert will open with an introductory performance and raga explanation by Tejendra N. Majumdar and Samir Chatterjee
Admission: Free
Koushik Bhattacharya
Koushik Bhattacharya began his training at a very early age under the guidance of his father, Pt. Pataki Bhattacharya, and his mother, Rama Bhattacharya, and as a child performed in respected festivals throughout India. In 1987 he was selected as a scholar by the Sangeet Research Academy, studying with Pt. Arun Bhaduri. He eventually became the “Ganda Bandh Shagrid” of the late Pt. K.G. Ginde and also trained later under the guidance of Pt. Sunil Bose
Koushik is a regular artist of All India Radio & Television and an empanelled artist of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations under the Ministry of External Affairs. He is attached as a guru of Indian Classical Vocal in Gyan Bani FM (105.4 MHZ) on the “Sur Sabha” radio program airing live on Wednesday evenings.
Koushik has performed throughout India for many years at acclaimed music conferences including the ITC Sangeet Sammelan, the All India Music Conference in New Delhi, the Conference of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Dover Lane Music Conference, Uttarpara Sangeet Chakra, West Bengal State Music Academy and Dakshini Music Conference. He has also toured extensively worldwide participating in prestigious music events in the U.S.A., Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Dubai and Bangladesh.He received the Surmani award from Sursinger Samsad in Mumbai, and the Vocational Award 2008 from the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City, Kolkata.
Along with his busy concert and touring schedule, Koushik also serves as a dedicated teacher of Indian Classical Vocal in “The Doverlane Music Academy” and “Future Hope School” of Kolkata and as examiner for Rabindra Bharati University. Koushik is also the director of his own music school, “Manindra Sangeet Tirtha”, which was established by his father in 1970 (in memory of his Grand Father who was a famous Dhrupad Singer), and provides traditional Indian Classical music education.
Sandip Ghosh
Sandip Ghosh is a talented, young, upcoming musician of the present generation. He has successfully evolved as a promising Tabla player of the Farukhabad Gharana. He is equally adept as a solo musician as well as an accompanist with vocal, instrumental and dance performances. Sandip is known for his great sense of creativity as well as intelligent and sensible accompaniment.
Born in 1982, in a music loving family of Kolkata, he was initiated into the art of Tabla by his supportive parents in his early childhood. He started to learn Tabla under the tutelage of Pt. Gobindo Bose and continued for nine years. Sandip, then came in touch of Pt. Anindo Chatterjee where he started taking talim and gradually emerged as a specialised Tabla player of the superb style of "Farukhabad" gharana. Under the able guidance of Pt. Anindo Chatterjee, he has gained extensive talim of all other gharanas as well. He is also taking Vocal accompaniment Talim from Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty.
Sandip Ghosh is a 1st class 1st in "M.A." in Music from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
Sandip has accompanied several globally distinguished artistes like Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Pt. Hari Prasad Chourasia, Ustad Aashish Khan, Pt. Kushal Das, Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumder, Pt. Nayan Ghosh, Shri Prattyush Banerjee, Pt. ParthoSarathy, Pt. Debojyoti Bose, Vid. Kaushiki Chakraborty, Shri Partha Sarathi Desikan, Shri Ranajit Sengupta, Shri Purbayan Chatterjee, Smt. Shirin Sengupta, Shri Partha Bose, Shri Sugato Nag, Shri Snehashish Mozumder, Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta, Ud. Shahid Parvez, Ud. Shujaat Khan,Vid. Dr. M. Balamuralikrish and the likes.
He has been successfully featured in several significant and prestigious concerts like Doverlane Music Conference, Uttarpara Sangeet Chakra, ITC SRA Sangeet Sammelan, Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav, Shankarlal Music Festival, Bal Gandharv Sangeet Samaroh, Saptak Music Festival, Sangeet Shankar Darbar Music Festival, Ganga Mahotsav etc.
Sandip Ghosh has performed all over the globe in USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Germany, Switzerland, Italy France, Belgium, Holland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Georgia, Oman, Kuwait, Denmark and so on . He is an empanelled artist of ICCR and SPICMACAY.
He has successfully collaborated with Music Bands like 'Kyabaat', Hamburg, ‘Ragas & Blossoms’, Kolkata, ‘String Struck’, Mumbai, ‘Asa, The Coral of Life’, Munich , ‘Anouraag’, Switzerland, ‘You & Me’, Germany, ‘ K3’, Austria 'Big-Band Orchestra' of 'Hamburg Music University'.
Sandip Ghosh has won many titles and awards. To mention a few are President's Award, "Gold Medal" in South Asian Universities Festival twice, “ Academy Puroskar ”, Rajya Sangeet Academy, National Scholarship from Govt. of India, Dover Lane Music Conference Award.
Sandip also got the rare and precious opportunity to play several duets with his legendary guru, the great tabla maestro Pt. Anindo Chatterjee.
Tejendra Narayan Majumdar
One of the best-known and undoubtedly busiest Sarode players of the world, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar has long achieved that order of excellence and popular acceptability, which ensure one's place in posterity. Early initiation into music by his grandfather, the Late Bibhuti Ranjan Majumdar, and later his father, the Late Ranjan Majumdar, nurtured Tejendra's considerable talent. Vocal and rhythm training under Late Pandit Amaresh Chowdhury and Sri Anil Palit further ensured a holistic musical development in him. Tejendra was then accepted by the Late Ustad Bahadur Khan as his disciple.
Eighteen years of intensive study under him matured his talent into a true genius. Recognition of it came in 1981, when he stood first in the All India Radio Music Competition and was awarded the President's Gold Medal and the Pandit D.V.Paluskar award. After the untimely demise of his guru, he studied under Late Sri Ajay Sinha Roy and then under one of the Legends of Indian Music – Swar-Samrat Late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, until his demise. One of the best equipped musicians to carry on the great Senia Maihar mantle, Tejendra combines the intellectual density and technical virtuosity of his gharana, with an extraordinary tone, touch and an ambient melody which transcends any qualification. His repertoire combines elements from the Dhrupad, Tanatrakari, and the Gayaki styles of music. Above all, he has in abundant measure, that indescribable ability to take the listeners along with him - the rare quality that is the hallmark of a genius. He is also a Top Grade artist of A.I.R and Doordarshan.
Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar's brilliance and popularity as a classical artiste has not dimmed his interest in composing, arranging and experimenting in other areas of music. From composing the background score of meaningful films to musical ballets - Tejendra is always ready to take on any musical challenge. He has composed the music for the Bengali films like ‘Shongshoy’ and ‘Hononkal’ of Saibal Mitra, Tollylights of Arjun Chakraborty, and a lot of Telefilms. He has also composed and arranged music for different singers like Ghulam Ali, Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Haimanti Shukla, Arati Mukherjee, etc.
Most of his time is, however, taken up in touring the country and abroad, presenting innumerable concerts, workshops, lecture demonstrations, doing recordings and taking up teaching assignments. Within the country he is a regular artiste in the premiere concert circuit, while in Europe, Canada and in the United States, his popularity has ensured his regular representation in some of the most prestigious concerts. Within Europe, Tejendra has made his remakable popularity in the countries of France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Austria and U.K. He is also very popular in the Asian countries of U.A.E., Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Bangladesh. Constraint of space will not allow an exhaustive catalogue of this genius - but only a short representative one. In 2009, he was invited by none other than Pandit Ravi Shankar to perform at Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, Los Angeles.
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 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, Pt. Manilal Nag, Ud. Ali Ahmed Hussain, Ud. Aashis Khan, Dr. L. Subramanium, U Srinivas, Ud. Naseeruddin Sami, Smt. Veena Sahashrabuddhe, Ud. Shujat Khan, Ud. Saheed Parvez, Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty, Ud. Nishat Khan, Ud. Rashid Khan, Pt. Tejendra N. Mazumdar, Pt. Debashish Bhattacharya, Smt. Arti Anklekar, Smt. Kaushiki Chakraborty, 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, Yoko Ono Lenon, David Liebman, Oliver Lake, Dave Douglas, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Jerome Harris, Eric Friedlander, Steve Gorn, Glen Velez, Boby Sanabria, Jin Hi Kim, Min Xiao-Fen, 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 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 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, a guide book to Indian music titled Music of India and Those Forty Days, a journal of an austere practice regimen. He is on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music, University of Pittsburgh and New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He also taught at the Yale University, Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University, among many other major institutions in the USA, Europe and India. 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.