Stringed to classical notes

Sursagar, in affiliation with ITC Sangeet Analysis Academy, Alliance Francaise and supported by Canara Union, will current Hindustani Raagdhaari Sangeet that includes sitarist Partha Chatterjee and Medha Basu.

“I’m coming to current conventional music from the repertoire of Hindustani in its pure classical type, and but intention to entertain folks in Bengaluru,” says 74-year-old Partha over cellphone from his residence in Kolkata.

There are such a lot of genres of standard music, like movie songs or ghazals, Partha says. “These are simply accessible. Classical music, however, requires listeners to have information of the style. It’s a robust style for a musician to get the viewers built-in together with your ideas and emotions whereas on stage. But, classical music has its personal vitality because it has survived 1000’s of years and can final for a lot of extra thousand of years.”

Classical music is the final word path for music, Partha says. “It would survive regardless of the challenges it faces. Once I began as an artist, alternatives had been approach lesser, in contrast to immediately the place alternatives and live shows are plentiful. Musicians use social media platforms to advertise their music.”

Partha’s journey into music was natural. “Music was within the household. My mom Rama Chatterjee is a singer and a daily artiste on All India Radio and Doordarshan, whereas my late father, Prabir Kumar Chatterjee, launched me to the sitar and in addition despatched me to be skilled from the guru, Nikhil Banerjee. Publish this, Ali Akbar Khan, took me underneath his tutelage and I additionally skilled from Buddhadev Dasgupta.”

Partha is at present a visiting college on the Ali Akbar School of Music and a guru of ITC SRA since 2011. He has carried out at prestigious music festivals like Competition of India (Basel, Switzerland), Broadway Theatre (New York) moreover working with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Authorities of India, as a musical ambassador.

Earlier than deciding on the sitar, Partha says he took to singing. “I accompanied my mom and performed the tabla for her live shows. Unconsciously I imbibe all of the bandishes and the ragas. I didn’t plan on enjoying the sitar, although my father was a sitar participant. In the future he introduced a sitar into the home and handed it to me and I used to be enamoured by the instrument. I might hearken to many sitar gamers on the radio in these days.”

Kolkata is the hub for instrumental music, Partha says. “Many instrumentalists, together with my gurus, who’re stalwarts of classical music, are from Kolkata. Pt. Ravi Shankar, although not from Kolkata, was a Bengali. There was a time when the tradition of sitar, sarod and tabla peaked in Kolkata.”

In south India, Partha says, households adopted the normal method of selling classical music by inviting academics to their houses to show. “Even housewives would study music. This custom was robust in Maharashtra too.”

Medha, with whom Partha can be performing is a scholar on the ITC Sangeet Analysis Academy, Kolkata. “She is a proficient musician coaching underneath Ajoy Chakrabarty and Brajeswar Mukherjee since 2017. These live shows are organised to advertise youthful abilities alongside seasoned musicians. We wish her voice additionally to be heard.”

Partha is the winner of the BasundharaAward (2012) by Mysore Gayana Sabha, Pandit Puttaraj Gawai Nationwide Award (2013), Jadu Bhatta Award, Alauddin Khan Puraskar in Instrumental Music by Authorities of West Bengal (2023). Performing in Bengaluru just isn’t new to Partha. He has carried out twice, within the 90s, together with at Max Mueller Bhavan.