BASC Puja 2005
Cultural Program Highlights

Santoor by Rahul Sharma, Tabla by Pt. Abhijit Banerjee

Rahul is a musician - a versatile musician, who loves to take the tougher path, To begin with, he chose Santoor, an instrument with 100 strings. Then he chose the ancient and extremely demanding idiom of Indian classical music to harness and express his creativity. After diving deep within this time-tested ocean if Indian classical music, he chose to share the pearls he discovered with creative minds across the globe.

Rahul collaborated with the world-renowned pianist Richard Clayde to produce an album but give several live concerts. He is also the youngest Indian musician to perform at the WOMAD (World of music, Arts and Dance) festival in UK, as well as the Edinburgh festival, Scotland (2001). His performance along with his illustrious father Pundit Shivkumar Sharma was the first ever concert of Indian music in Egypt.

Rahul has also experimened with commercial music and directed the music for the film "Mujhse Dosti Karoge", working with famous singers such as Lata Mangeshkar. The awards he won include Indo American Society Award (1998), Bollywood Music Award for promising New Music Director, New York (2002), and MTV Music Award for Best Classical / Fusion Album 2003.

Along with all these experiments Rahul continues to give his concerts of pure Indian Classical Music across India and beyond.

Abhijit started learning TABLA at a very tender age from Sri Tushar Kanti Bose, later from Sri Manik Pal and finally came under the tutelage of Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh. Abhijit is now a regular performer at all the major music conferences all over India and abroad. Besides accompanying all the major artistes of India, both in North Indian and South Indian tradition, he has the privilege of presenting himself as a solo performer in many music conferences in India and abroad. He has toured extensively all over the world and also associated himself with the Jazz world and performed with some Jazz musicians and groups in New York.

Abhijit has conducted many seminars on Indian Classical Music at Universities in U.S.A., Japan, England and Spain . Abhijit has composed music for TV serials and short films of which THE TRAILS-a film on Calcutta- got the National Award. Abhijit also represented India in the World Festival of Music held in Granada, Spain.

Songs by Somdatta Basu

Somdatta began her vocal training at the age of five. Raised in Jalpaiguri, she started her public performance at the age of twelve and won several awards. She achieved her Masters Degree in Economics and parallely obtained her Hindustani classical vocal music diploma from the University of Chandigarh. Somdatta continued her intense musical training from Sujit Chakrabarty, an illustrious disciple of Tarapada Chakraborty of Kirana Gharana. Currently Somdatta is receiving her guidance from her guru Smt Sipra Bose of Lucknow Gharana, who is not only one of the leading vocalist in the dominant classical genre known as Khayal, but also in the lighter forms of north Indian classical music including Thumri, Dadra, Tappa, Hori, Chaiti, Kajri & Ghazal.

Somdatta has a rich voice and eloquent style of music rendering and carries with her a diverse treasure of Hindustani classical and light classical music & modern songs. As a performer, Somdatta has performed in India as well as in the USA and has also appeared in several radio programs. Two albums “Smriti” & “Smriti Dwitiyo Khanda” - a compilation of Bengali Modern songs of the yester years, made immortal by Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Pratima Bandopadhyay and Hemanta Mukhopadhyay have been, released by Biswas Records . A devoted musician of high caliber, her powerful voice touches the heart of every listener.

Sinbad - a Bengali musical

Sinbad is the first Broadway style Bengali Musical to be staged anywhere. It is a true community effort with original costumes, songs, dances and a unique original story of a magical dog.

Sinbad comes to an ordinary Bengali middle class family where future is bleak and hope is scarce. Through his magic, he completely transforms this family into a happy one.

Every scene is enriched by rich musical scores and vibrant dancing which go hand in hand with the funny storyline. Just as the old widower "Dadu" finds a new love through a romantic dance, the college dropout kid Baptu leanrs the value of education through a vibrant dance number and his father Paresh gets initiated in taking bribes through another fantastic song preaching the glory of money.

The musical will be an extravaganza unlike any staged before in Southern California and promises to be a feast for all your senses.

Conceived, written and directed by Don Ganguly
Music by Samir Chatterjee and Soumya Mukherjee
Dance choreography and Direction by Sharanya (Mimi) Mukhopadhyay
Produced by Siddhartha Dasgupta and Jyotishko Ganguly

Samples of songs (in .mp3 format):
Sinbad Theme music
Windower Dadu falls in love
The housewife achieves her dream

Indian Ocean - folk based fusion band

Indian Ocean is one of the leading fusion bands in India with almost cult status. Their first album in the early 90’s sold more copies than any other Indian band in history.

Kandisa, released in March 2000 became one of the best loved fusion albums in India and abroad. The four member band has two Bengalis and one half Bengali- their music draws abundantly from their Bengali roots making for a very unique sound. They have composed the music for the upcoming film Black Friday.

Indian Ocean played their first concert abroad in London in 2001. They went on to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where they played 18 concerts in 14 days, and were nominated the Pick of the Fringe. They returned to the Fringe in 2002 and 2003. In 2002, the band played 37 concerts abroad across four continents: New Zealand, USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and Indonesia. In 2003 they toured the UK twice, as well as Australia, Germany, Singapore, and Réunion. In addition, they continued to play all over India.

Members:

• Susmit Sen on the acoustic guitar
• Asheem Chakravarty on the tabla, percussions & vocals
• Amit Kilam on drums
• Rahul Ram on the bass guitar and vocals

Sample of Indian Ocean Music:
Desert Rain
Kya Maloom (Kandisa)
Kandisa (Kandisa)
Bharam Bhap Ke (Black Friday)

 

Rajyasree Basu - Bengali Modern Songs

Rajyasree is a promising singer who is making waves in Kolkata following the footsteps of her famous sister – Sriradha Banerjee. Born in Kolkata in a family rich with musical heritage, Rajyasree received her Initial training from her father Sundar Narayan Banerjee and mother Protima Banerjee.

Rajyasree is a regular performer on various concerts, radio and TV channels in Kolkata and has published three solo albums on new modern bengali songs “Ke tumi dako morey", “Aakash hote pari" and “Bhalobashar naam tumi".

Rajyasree took her training on Adhunik songs from famous artists such as Jatileshwar Mukherjee, Ajoy Das, Dinendra Choudhury, and so on. She took training in Classical music, folk songs, Rabindrasangeet, Nazrul Geeti and Bhajan. Some of her teachers include Sukhendu Goswami, Devi Ranjan Banerjee, Dinendra Choudhury, Subhas Choudhury, Prosad Sen, Chinmoy Chatterjee, Dhiren Bosu and so on.