Sarod - Tejendra Narayan Majumdar
Tabla - Samir Chatterjee
Tabla - Tanmoy Bose
Come join us for an evening of Hindustani instrumental music performed on the Sarod by the world acclaimed artist Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. He will be accompanied by our own Samir Chatterjee and Tanmoy Bose on tabla. This performance is done with the cooperation of our community partner the KalpaVriksha, Centre for Performing Arts. The concert will also be streamed live.
Tejendra Narayan Majumdar
One of the best-known and undoubtedly one of the busiest Sarode maestros of the world, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, has long achieved that order of excellence and universal acclaim, which ensures him to be one of the foremost icons of Indian Classical Music throughout the globe.
His early ages his grandfather, Late Bibhuti Ranjan Majumdar and later his father, Late Ranjan Majumdar, nurtured Tejendra's considerable talent. Tejendra was accepted by the Sarod Maestro Late Ustad Bahadur Khan as his disciple. Vocal and rhythm training under Late Pandit Amaresh Chowdhury and Sri Anil Palit further ensured a holistic musical development in him. Eighteen years of intensive study under Late Ustad Bahadur Khan matured his talent into a true genius. After the untimely demise of his guru, he studied under Late Sri Ajay Sinha Roy. He was then accepted as a disciple by none other than Late Swara Samrat Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He continued to learn from the Legend until his demise.
Recognition came to him as early as 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. Thenceforth, he did not have to look backwards and has performed and gained recognition in 4 continents. Quite obviously, he is also a Top-Grade artist of A.I.R and Doordarshan. This year, the Government of West Bengal has awarded him Banga Bhushan as well as Sangeet Mahasamman, the highest award for music in West Bengal.
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. Tejendra's repertoire combines elements from the Dhrupad, Tantrakari as well as 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.
Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar was invited to perform for the 50th Independence Day Celebration of India in New York, USA, at World Trade Centre (the historic Twin Towers) on 15th August 1997. After the Kargil War in 1999, he had organized a Relief-Fund-Raising concert in which various maestros of Indian Classical Music had taken part and had donated the full amount of INR 1 Lakh raised due to the concert towards their relief. Just after the Nepal earthquake, a few months back, he had participated in Nepal Earthquake Relief-Fund-Raising concert in Nashville, USA
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. In 2009, he was invited by none other than Bharat Ratna Late Pandit Ravi Shankar to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA.
Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar has been accompanied by a wide range of Tabla maestros right from Kishen Maharaj, Zakir Hussain, Shankar Ghosh, Swapan Chaudhuri, Kumar Bose, Anindo Chatterje, Sanjay Mukherjee, Sabir Khan to Subhankar Banerjee, Yogesh Samsi, Bickram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose.
His trio and duet renditions with Vocal maestros Ustad Rashid Khan and Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, his duet renditions with Sitar maestros such as Shahid Pervez, Shujaat Hussain Khan, Kushal Das have been widely acclaimed and are highly appreciated throughout the globe. He has not stopped himself from collaborating with Carnatic maestros like Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Mysore Manjunath, N. Ravikiran and Shashank Subramanyam.
Tejendra Narayan Majumdar is also well known for his World Music endeavors. He has collaborated to present World Music with names such as Sivamani, Trilok Gurtu, Louis Banks, George Brooks and Ganesh Rajagopalan. 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 Bengali films like Sajarur Kaata , Shongshoy and Hononkal of Saibal Mitra, Tollylights of Arjun Chakraborty, and a number of Telefilms. He has also composed and arranged music for different singers like Ghulam Ali, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Ustad Rashid Khan, Haimanti Shukla, Arati Mukherjee, etc. One of his composed and arranged music albums SOUL CALL- OM NAMOH NARAYANAY had been nominated for the 2010 Grammy awards!
Samir Chatterjee
Samir Chatterjee is a virtuoso tabla player. He performs and teaches all around the world. He can be heard on numerous recordings as soloist, and with other outstanding musicians from the East and the West. Samir lives in New Jersey and presides over a center for Indian music in midtown Manhattan. Samir teaches at several universities. He performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. He has also performed several times at the UN General Assembly. His compositions and writings are widely acclaimed. Samir played a significant role in the musical revival in Afghanistan. He is the recipient of a few awards such as the Sunshine Award, Jadu Bhatta Award and Acharya Varistha Award.
Tanmoy Bose
Born and raised in Kolkata, the cultural capital of India, Tanmoy Bose is a percussionist and tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer. Bose grew up in downtown Kolkata at a time when Indian Music was being paid serious attention in the West due to the efforts of the legendary maestros. His house used to throb with activity-business, music, medicine at all and was rightfully considered as a nodal point of practitioners and connoisseurs of all the above and could boast of being a landmark in the area.
Tanmoy Bose is one of the foremost musicians in contemporary world music and an indispensable member in the global fraternity of percussion. Bose received his early tutelage from the legendary Lt Kanai Dutta. Bose became the Gandabandh Shagird {formally initiated disciple in Indian classical music} of the noted torchbearer of the Farukkabad gharana –Pandit Shankar Ghosh. For the last three decades, he has been taking lessons from his guru in spite of keeping an extremely busy schedule, performing and teaching across the globe. Even as early as being in college, he had the rare opportunity of being called upon by another musical legend, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan to perform with him. The association with this legendary maestro has been that of a family member for the last two decades performing with him so regularly.
Another great milestone in Tanmoy Bose’s life was achieved when the greatest ambassador of Indian Classical Music Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar invited him to play regularly with him around the world and today he spends almost half the year traveling with the legendary maestro and in turn learning more and getting better with each of the concerts that he plays with him.
Bose has been instrumental to take drumming up into a new level. Over the last few years, his brainchild, Taaltantra has emerged as one of the foremost world music bands regularly enthralling audiences in the Mid-East, North America, Europe and India experimenting with timeless Jazz, Indian Classical Music, Folk Music and indigenous drumming. The name signifies “sadhana” or worship through rhythm. Even though Taaltantra essentially is not dealing with just drumming, it has elements of various instrumentation. The world of sound is the forte of the band which is worth experiencing.
Another significant endeavour worth mentioning is Rhythmania. Rhythmania incorporates Indian classical music coupled with Western and Mediterranean, Jazz world folk and a new age fusion Electronic Dance Music (EDM) which provides the perfect concoction that connects hearts globally.
Bose has been an ardent researcher and composer. His long tours around the world had given him opportunities to interact and play with musicians, composers, choreography and the like he put to very good use his rich experience acquired hereby and created DHWANI, BEYOND BORDERS, TAALYAAGNA, CHATURANG and MOKSH - based on the virtues of Indian Rhythmic nuances.
For Tanmoy, music and life are inseparable. Rhythm is his quest of truth and beauty- it transcends all other priorities in his life.