An Evening of Surbahar and Sarode
Radhika Samson - Surbahar
Satayaki Dutta - Sarode
Amod Dandawate- Tabla
Join us for an evening of North Indian Classical Instrumental Music at the Chhandayan Center.
The Performances will also be streamed live.
Radhika Samson
Radhika Samson is a reputed sitar artist of the younger generation. She has been under the able guidance of the late world-renowned Hansaveena maestro Pandit Barun Kumar Pal, a senior disciple of Bharat Ratna Pt. Ravi Shankar. She has studied Indian classical music under the traditional gurushishya parampara, a traditional master-disciple based training under which the shishya (student) receives dedicated training in rare Indian classical art forms from his/her master (guru). She has also attended dedicated classes on Indian classical music of Pt. Barun Kumar Pal at the Ravi Shankar Institute of Music and Performing Arts established in New Delhi.
Radhika has performed at several prestigious platforms/festival in India and abroad, and her concerts have been appreciated by audiences andcritics alike. She has had the privilege of performing with her guru Pt. Barun Pal on several occasions
Radhika is currently faculty of Sitar at Sadhana School of Music, Dance and Arts. She is also training several young talents in traditional Indian classical music at The Mother's International School, Aurobindo Ashram, Delhi. As a dedicated and devoted artist she wishes to carry forth the rich tradition of Music of India with sincere commitment.
Owing to her affinity and natural inclination towards the Dhrupadi Ang of Indian Classical Music, in the year 2019, Guru Pandit Barun KumarPal ji formally blessed and initiated Radhika with an ancient instrument, the Surbahar. After being initiated formally into the oldest form of Hindustani Classical Music through the Surbahar, Radhika has performed in various occasions and received immense appreciation for her calm style of rendering Indian Classical Music.
Satyaki Dutta
Satyaki was born in a family with great appreciation for Hindustani classical music. At the age of 5 he was introduced to tabla, that he learnt for the next 7 years. Satyaki was fortunate to have spent much of his childhood among musicians like Pandit Sugato Nag, his mother's cousin and the legendary Sarod virtuoso PadmaBhushan Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta. At the age of 16, he started taking extensive talim in Sarod from Sri Pranab Naha and Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta.
Satyaki had performed at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore annual festival in 1999, while he was pursuing his masters study in Electrical Communication Engineering
His music practically stopped for several years when he came to the US in 2000 to pursue his PhD studies in Pure Mathematics. Finally, in 2011 he resumed his music under the tutelage of Pandit Sugato Nag.
Tejas Tope
TEJAS TOPE
Tejas Tope is an aspiring young Indian percussionist who comes from Long Island New York. Tejas has been learning tabla from Pt. Samir Chatterjee for over 15 years. Additionally, since 2011, Tejas has been attending classes in the Summer with Ustad Zakir Hussain. At Zakirji's invitation, Tejas performed a tabla solo at the Barsi of Ustad Alla Rakha on February 3, 2018 at Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai.
Tejas Tope has also been learning Pakhawaj from Pandit Mohan Shyam Sharma for the last 5 years. He has also had the opportunity to study with Pandit Manik Munde and Shri Pratap Awad.
At the ages of 7, 12, and 14, with the blessings of his Guru, he participated in one of USA’s highly acclaimed 5th, 10th, and 14th Annual All Night Concerts (May 2004, May 2009, May 2012) held in New York City, organized by Chhandayan (www.tabla.org). In the 2004 and 2009 events he participated in the Tablaphilia ensembles. Tejas accompanied Shri. Samarth Nagarkar on tabla at the 13th All Night Concert held in New York City, organized by Chhandayan in May 2012 and shared the stage with some of the legends in Hindustani Classical music.
Tejas received First prize in the instrumental category from 2005-2011 at the annual Vedic Heritage’s Holi Youth Talent Competition held in Hempstead, Long Island, NY. In the summer of 2006, he played at the 6th Marathi European Sammelan in Almelo, Netherlands, at the 13th BMM Convention in Seattle (June 2007), and 15th BMM Convention in Chicago (July 2011). In October 2007, Tejas had his Rangamanch Pravesh and presented tabla solo as a part of Chhandayan Concert Series. Tejas received first prize in the Swardhara Competition held by Marathi Vishwa of New Jersey in 2010 and 2012. Tejas is recipient of Chhandayan’s most prestigious Jyotsna Award in the student category in 2011.
At the age of 11, he recorded his compositions in a CD album entitled “Guru-Arpita – A Dedication to Pt. Samir Chatterjee” as a token of his affection, respect, and gratitude to his Guru. The CD album contains fifty-six compositions presented in structured tabla solo format in six taals. A booklet of his compositions accompanies the CD album.
In 2011, Tejas was invited to play tabla solo for the fall concert series at the Rocky Point Schools. From the sale of his CDs, he raised and donated over $500 to the Rocky Point Friends of Music. Tejas serves as a volunteer at the All Night Concerts held in NYC each year and has raised funds over $500 from the sale of his CD for Chhandayan.
At the annual Crescendo competition held in Atlanta, GA in September 2012 , Tejas won the 1st Prize in the under 15 tabla category. He also won the Mega Finals Round (shared this award with Nisha Kulkarni of Phoenix AZ) at the same competition. Recording and release of a complete CD album by Swarganga was the prize. The album has been recorded in Atlanta, GA, with blessings of Shri Chaitanya Kunte accompanying him on harmonium.
In addition to playing tabla solo in various venues in USA and abroad, Tejas has accompanied his Guru Pt. Samir Chatterjee (tabla solo), Pt. Ramesh Mishra (sarangi), Pt. Steve Gorn (flute), Samarth Nagarkar (vocal), Kunal Gunjal (santoor), Qais Essar (rabab), Padmashree Pt. Satish Vyas (santoor), Padmashree Pta. Rita Ganuli (vocal), Shakir Khan (sitar), Kedar Naphade (harmonium solo), Pta. Lalita Dantale-Kurulkar (vocal), Chaitanya Kunte (harmonium), Manoj Govindraj (vocal), Rucha Muley-Jambhekar (vocal), Paromita Das (vocal), and his sister, Priyanka Topé (vocal, www.priyankatope.com), and several other musicians over the past several years. Tejas attended 2 workshops conducted by Ud. Shahid Parvez in 2012 and 2013. In 2012 and 2013, he was invited by Phoenix Gharana and Swarganga to play tabla solo and accompany all participants in vocal and instrumental categories of all ages in their respective prestigious annual competitions. In 2013 Tejas accompanied students of Shri Manoj Govindraj at Guru Pournima held by AIM School of Music, Edison NJ, and kathak dance students of Guru Archana Joglekar at their rangamancha-pradarshan. Tejas also regularly accompanies accomplished singers in semi-classical and folk vocal and instrumental art forms, such as bhajans, ghazals, thumris, chaitis, laavnis, bhavgeets, natyasangeet, etc.
As a part of his self-study, during 2012 and 2013, he has learned several compositions published by Pt. Arvind Mulgoankar in his books, CDs, and DVDs, over 2 year of self-study he has compiled about 1-hour solo using the traditional format of tabla solo, and has recorded it his new album Space Within Beats.
With blessings of Pt. Ramesh Mishra accompanying him on Sarangi, during the summer of 2013, Tejas recorded 2 tabla and pakhawaj solo albums entitled Inner Rhythm and Space Within Beats. He has also recorded a self-composed 10.5-matra taal which he has named “Ardhadhik Dashanan” (half plus 10-headed Ravana). Tejas accompanied Shri Manoj Govindraj in album entitled Swar-Ras (classical vocal), and Baad-E-Naubahaar (Ghazals). He also accompanied Smt. Rucha Muley Jambhekar in album entitled Bhav-Rang.