Barun Kumar Pal - Hansaveena
Steve Gorn - Bansuri
Aditya Phatak - Tabla

The Baithak concert series is dedicated to the fond memories of Mr. Chandrakant Rao.

Barun Kumar Pal

Barun Kumar Pal is admired all over the globe as a solo player, composer, dedicated Guru and a musician who renders his music from his soul in a spiritual level.

“He is an outstanding Hansaveena artist of the north Indian classical music”

– Pandit Ravi Shankar

Pt. Barun Kumar Pal is one of the most reputed and prominent artists of India. He is one of the foremost disciples of Bharat Ratna Pt. Ravi Shankar. Pt. Barun Kumar Pal is recognized as the pioneer in introducing the Hawaiian slide guitar to the world of Indian classical music. His distinctive playing style, many years of research in creating a powerful connection between the slide guitar and Indian Classical Music has led to the invention of a revolutionary sound which aesthetically incorporates the blend of the Veena, Sitar and Sarod.

Pt. Barun Pal shared a very special and spiritual bond with his revered guru Pt. Ravi Shankar for more than 35 yrs. Pt. Ravi Shankar cherished and recognized Barunji’s dedication and commitment towards his teachings and sentiments, following which Pt. Ravi Shankar entrusted the responsibility of the Ravi Shankar Institute of Music and Performing Arts (RIMPA), New Delhi, into the hands of Barunji, to carry forward the tradition of the Maihar gharana.

Since 1983, Pt. Barun Kumar Pal has been travelling extensively all over the world giving solo performances, music workshops, lecture demonstrations and Radio-TV interviews. Amongst the major concerts he has performed are WOMAD fest in London, Bath Festival, Pt. Ravi Shankar’s Parampara Festival in San Diego, SPIC Macay (StanFord, U.S.A.), I.I.T. Annual Fest,Ali Akbar Music College summer Festivals, Chhandayan whole night concert,Doverlane Music Festival, Haridas Sangeet Samaroha,Tansen Sangeet Sammelan, SIFAS Festival of Indian Music and Dance in Singapore. He has been awarded with several National Broadcasts of All India Radio -Doordarshan Sangeet Sammelans. He has released numerous cassettes, LP’s and CD’s worldwide. His concerts are preserved by the British National Archives. Barunji is the recipient of several honors and awards such as “Sangeet Prabhakar”, “Sangeet Ratna”, “Kal ke Kalakar”, “Allauddin Sangeet Ratna”, “Abhinav Kalakar”, “Vadya Ratan” to name a few.

Pt. Barun Kumar Pal’s contributions as a composer, music director and conductor in Indian classical music for A.I.R, Doordarshan, DD-7, and National Youth Festival are well known. He is also popularly known for having produced “Raga Symphony” and “Millennium Symphony”, and numerous choirs with young talents, with over 75 presentations including those of the Vienna Children’s Choir and the Choir of RIMPA.

Steve Gorn

Steve Gorn has performed Indian classical music and new American music on the bansuri bamboo flute in concerts and festivals throughout the world. Originally a disciple of the late bansuri master Gour Goswami of Calcutta, he also studied with the late Ustad Z. M. Dagar, and at present he is under the guidance of Professor Deba Prasad Banerjee of Calcutta and Pt. Raghunath Seth of Mumbai.

Steve's father was a concert pianist, and the home resonated with music, but it was at Penn State, where Steve was studying composition and playing jazz that his journey to India began. Hearing the influence that Indian music was having on John Coltrane, and Charles Lloyd, Steve hit the road and headed East. Traveling overland, he arrived in India in 1969. After a season in Benaras, the great center of spirituality and music, where he studied shenai, he was drawn to Calcutta where he met his musical guru, Sri Gour Goswami. Ever since, Steve has delved deeper and deeper into the richness of Indian classical music, and has returned to India many times to study and more recently perform.

Describing his 1996 performance in Mumbai at the Sangeet Research Academy's Indian Music and the West Seminar, SRA West Chairman, Arvind Parikh has said, "Steve Gorn's concert was widely appreciated for its outstanding musicianship.... and has won him a host of admirers." In 1998, Steve returned to India performing to enthusiastic audiences at The Nehru Center, NCPA, and the Dadar Matunga Music Circle in Mumbai.

Steve's numerous recordings include Luminous Ragas, one of the Los Angeles Reader top ten recordings of 1994, and recently re-issued on Steve's label, Bamboo Ras. It has become a cult favorite for yoga and meditation. His Indian classical recording, Parampara, (Wergo) is accompanied by tabla maestro Pandit Samir Chatterjee. The landmark Indian-jazz fusion recording, Asian Journal (Music of the World) and Wings and Shadows (Bamboo Ras), on which his bansuri is accompanied by the haunting sound of thousands of birds singing at twilight in Pune, India, offer still more examples of his blending of India and Beyond.

Widely know in the West for his creative blends of Indian and Western music, Steve composes for film and television and has recorded extensively. His long collaborations with Glen Velez and Jai Uttal, Layne Redmond and Badal Roy have led to numerous recordings. In 1995, he toured Europe and Africa with the legendary jazz drummer, Jack Dejohnette, and was a featured soloist in Jerome Robbins' ballet, Watermill, in New York and Paris. He has also created an acoustic/electronic score for Ranjabati Sircar's dance, "Cassandra", which was premiered in Calcutta in 1996. His recording with Paul Simon got him a Grammy nomination.

"Steve Gorn performed exquisitely and evocatively on the bamboo flute." The New York Times

"Steve Gorn plays with liquid grace. He is a master of sound-magic; may the world discover his gift." Paul Winter

"An extraordinary flute recital by Steve Gorn from the USA." The Pioneer, Mumbai

"Steve Gorn has adapted Indian Classical Music on the bansuri so nicely and properly that one should feel proud of him." Pandit Hari Prasad Chourasia

"........ an astonishing treatment of raga .... Gorn went beyond the notes to reach a place where his instrument was more effective than the human voice." Anand Bazar, Calcutta

Aditya Phatak

Aditya Phatak is a young student of Indian music, with special aptitude in Tabla. He started playing tabla at the age of two, even before he was tall enough to reach the drums. He was initially inspired by his grandfather Deepak Phatak and guided by his uncle Shivraj Phatak. Since February of 2008, when he was four years old, he came under the loving mentorship of Pt. Samir Chatterjee in the formal Guru-Shishya (master-disciple) relationship. Eleven years into his talim (grooming), through utmost sincerity and diligence, Aditya qualified to make his entry into the field of performance. His music is certainly worth listening to. He is also studying Hindustani Classical vocal music with Smt. Rucha Jambhekar.

Steve Gorn - Bansuri

Samir Chatterjee - Tabla

Steve Gorn

Grammy winner, and five time Grammy nominee, Steve Gorn is creating a new idiom, a music that combines the essence of classical Indian tradition with a contemporary world music sensibility. The strength of this music arises from a virtuoso mastery, generating a vibrant fusion, alive and accessible to western ears. From Indian classical music to world music and jazz projects with Paul Simon, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Winter and others, Steve infuses great mastery with a haunting, lyrical sweetness to bring the healing breath of the sacred to our demanding contemporary lives

Steve’s first steps on this path were taken as a young jazz musician studying composition at Penn State. He noticed how John Coltrane and Charles Lloyd had begun to incorporate aspects of Indian music into their playing. He investigated modal music and listened to Bismallah Khan who played the shenai, (Indian oboe), and to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan who were then only beginning to become known to Western audiences. Drawn by these sounds, he followed the music east and found himself in Benares, India in 1969, in a boat on the Ganges with the famous sarangi master, Gopal Misra, listening to his classical raga float out over the water in the evening light.

In Benares, Steve studied shenai with a local teacher and then traveled to Calcutta where he was invited to meet the Bengali bansuri master Sri Gour Goswami.

Returning to the U.S. he continued his study of Indian music with Pandit Raghunath Seth, and brought his elegant bansuri sound to American pop music, influencing a wide range of musicians, recording with Paul Simon, Richie Havens, Paul Winter, Jack DeJohnette, Glen Velez, and many others. Deepak Chopra, Krishna Das, Coleman Barks, Jai Uttal, Jerome Robbins, and Julie Taymor are among those who have sought out his virtuoso bamboo flute. He has composed for film, television, dance and theatre, and performed in concerts and festivals throughout the world, drawing from classical Indian, jazz and world music to create a distinctive signature sound.

His landmark world music recording, “Asian Journal,” and the unique “Wings and Shadows” have become cult favorites, and his acclaimed cd, “Luminous Ragas,” was named one of the top ten recordings of the year by Los Angeles Reader.

Describing his 1996 performance in Mumbai at the Sangeet Research Academy’s Indian Music and the West Seminar, SRA West Chairman, Arvind Parikh has said, “Steve Gorn’s concert was widely appreciated for its outstanding musicianship…. and has won him a host of admirers.” In 1998, Steve returned to India performing to enthusiastic audiences at The Nehru Center, NCPA, and the Dadar Matunga Music Circle in Mumbai.

Samir Chatterjee

amir 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 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.

Bansuri - Steve Gorn

Tabla - Miles Shrewsbery

Steve Gorn

Steve Gorn’s bansuri is featured on the 2011 Grammy winning recording, “Miho – Journey to the Mountain,” with Dhruba Ghosh and the Paul Winter Consort, as well as the Academy Award winning Documentary film, Born into Brothels. He has performed Indian Classical Music and new American Music on the bansuri bamboo flute in concerts and festivals throughout the world. His gurus are the late bansuri master Sri Gour Goswami, of Kolkata, and Pt. Raghunath Seth of Mumbai, who he often accompanied in concert. He has also studied with the late Ustad Z. M. Dagar. He has often performed in India, appearing at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Habitat Center and Triveni Hall in New Delhi, The Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, NCPA, and The Nehru Center in Mumbai. In 2013, he was awarded the Pandit Jasraj Rotary Club of Hyderabad Award for Cross Cultural Achievement.

His numerous recordings include "Luminous Ragas, Rasika", with tabla by Samir Chatterjee, "Illuminations", with Nepali bansuri wallah, Manose, and "Between Two Worlds", which features his clarinet as well as bansuri

Miles Shrewsbery

A disciple of Sri Abhiman Kaushal and Pandit Nandkumar Bhatlouande of Hyderabad, India, Miles Shrewsbery is trained in the Farukhabad Gharana of his teachers and is a respected performer of its rich, aesthetic repertoire through his years of dedicated study and practice. He has performed with top musicians such as Shujaat Khan, Deepak Ram, and Yusef Lateef. In performances all over the world,  from the Smithsonian Museum (Washington D.C.), Tokyo Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo, Japan), Royal Horticultural Hall (London, England), to St. Paul Cathedral (New York City). In 2012 Miles was awarded the American Institute of Indian Studies’ Senior Performing Arts Fellowship, which supported Miles to further his studies and practice in New Delhi, India for one year.  Currently, Miles manages and teaches at the San Diego Tabla Academy and is an artist-teacher in residence for the Center For World Music in San Diego, CA.

Steve Gorn met his guru, Sri Gour Goswami in 1971. He remembers the gifted young disciple, Gopal Roy, who became Eric Fraser’s guru 25 years later. Together, Steve and Eric deeply embody the gayaki vocal way of their gurus, who are descendants of thelineage of the legendary Pannalal Ghosh.

Together their jugalbandi of two flutes seamlessly evokes the emotionof rasa, space and
essence of raga.   Joined on tabla by Shivalik Ghoshal, this ensemble carries tradition forward with interactive spontaneity and heart.

Steve Gorn

Grammy winner, and five time Grammy nominee, Steve Gorn is creating a new idiom, a music that combines the essence of classical Indian tradition with a contemporary world music sensibility. The strength of this music arises from a virtuoso mastery, generating a vibrant fusion, alive and accessible to western ears. From Indian classical music to world music and jazz projects with Paul Simon, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Winter and others, Steve infuses great mastery with a haunting, lyrical sweetness to bring the healing breath of the sacred to our demanding contemporary lives

Steve’s first steps on this path were taken as a young jazz musician studying composition at Penn State. He noticed how John Coltrane and Charles Lloyd had begun to incorporate aspects of Indian music into their playing. He investigated modal music and listened to Bismallah Khan who played the shenai, (Indian oboe), and to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan who were then only beginning to become known to Western audiences. Drawn by these sounds, he followed the music east and found himself in Benares, India in 1969, in a boat on the Ganges with the famous sarangi master, Gopal Misra, listening to his classical raga float out over the water in the evening light.

In Benares, Steve studied shenai with a local teacher and then traveled to Calcutta where he was invited to meet the Bengali bansuri master Sri Gour Goswami.

Returning to the U.S. he continued his study of Indian music with Pandit Raghunath Seth, and brought his elegant bansuri sound to American pop music, influencing a wide range of musicians, recording with Paul Simon, Richie Havens, Paul Winter, Jack DeJohnette, Glen Velez, and many others. Deepak Chopra, Krishna Das, Coleman Barks, Jai Uttal, Jerome Robbins, and Julie Taymor are among those who have sought out his virtuoso bamboo flute. He has composed for film, television, dance and theatre, and performed in concerts and festivals throughout the world, drawing from classical Indian, jazz and world music to create a distinctive signature sound.

His landmark world music recording, “Asian Journal,” and the unique “Wings and Shadows” have become cult favorites, and his acclaimed cd, “Luminous Ragas,” was named one of the top ten recordings of the year by Los Angeles Reader.

Describing his 1996 performance in Mumbai at the Sangeet Research Academy’s Indian Music and the West Seminar, SRA West Chairman, Arvind Parikh has said, “Steve Gorn’s concert was widely appreciated for its outstanding musicianship…. and has won him a host of admirers.” In 1998, Steve returned to India performing to enthusiastic audiences at The Nehru Center, NCPA, and the Dadar Matunga Music Circle in Mumbai.

Eric Fraser

Eric Fraser is an exponent of a unique vocal style of North-Indian flute playing and has been learning intensively through annual trips to Kolkata, India from his guru Pandit Gopal Roy since 2003.  Eric's playing rings with authenticity and pure tone, imbibing the soul of Indian classical music.

Eric is a Fulbright senior research scholar for Indian music and has performed with renowned maestros of Indian music including Pandit Krishna Bhatt, Pandit Ramesh Mishra, Steve Gorn and Bollywood composer A.R Rahman at Carnegie Hall, including radio performances (NPR morning edition and WKCR New York).  He has a diverse background playing for Indian classical dance, as well as in projects ranging from Jazz, World, India and more.  A founding member of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, Eric's involvement in the musical community is far reaching.  Aside from playing Indian classical flute, Eric is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music therapist (MA, MT-BC).

Shivalik Ghoshal

Shivalik Ghoshal performed all of the tabla drumming for the soundtrack of Academy Award-winning documentary Born into Brothels (2004) as well at Lincoln Center with santoor maestro Sri Satnaam Singh. He has accompanied many maestros including Pandit Manilal Nag, Smt Girija Devi, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Phalguni Mitra, and Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain and numerous visiting Indian artists. He has received grants from New Jersey Council of Arts (NJ), Namashkar Foundation (CT), and Asian Arts Initiative (PA), as well as a citation from the New Jersey state legislature. He is currently working with Mary Zimmerman and Doug Peck on reorchestrating the jazz/classical Indian-based music of The Jungle Book for productions at the Goodman Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company. He is a student of tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri and comes from a renowned musical family.