Sunday, April 1, 2001, 6:00 pm
Tejendra Majumdar (Sarod)
with
Subhankar Banerjee (Tabla)
Venue:
The Recital Hall,
College of Saint Catherine, Saint Paul
About the artists:
Tejendra Narayan Majumdar is one of the well known Sarod players of India, who belongs to a younger generation of musicians. His performance sparkles with virtuosity as well as classicism. He represents the Senia-Maihar Gharana (i.e. traditional style or school) of Hindustani instrumental music. The most notable exponents of this style are Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar. Born in 1961, Tejendra started his initial lessons at a very early age. His grandfather, Bibhuti Rajan Majumdar and his father Ranjan Majumdar were his teachers in instrumental music. Tejendra also acquired proficiency in vocal music because of the training he received from Amaresh Chowdhury. At a later stage, Tejendra became a disciple of Ustad Bahadur Khan, one of the ablest of Sarod players/teachers. He continued his training with Ustad Bahadur Khan for almost 18 years, but after his death, Tejendra studied under another highly respected teacher, Ajay Rai Sinha. Currently Tejendra receives valuable guidance from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Tejendra, with his own efforts, has synthesized a style of his own, that blends in Tantrakari (i.e. instrumental) and Gayaki (i.e. vocal) styles. His performances are balanced with seriousness and classicism. Tejendra has received many honors and awards, important among them are: the First Place Ranking in All India Radio Music Competition, the President’s Gold Medal and the Pandit D. V. Paluskar Award. He has given performances in all major music conferences and festivals in India and has been on concert tours of Europe, U.S.A., Canada and many other countries.
A representative of the Farrukhabad Gharana (one of the six major styles of Tabla playing), Subhankar Banerjee is a highly talented Tabla player. He received his initial training from his father, Sunil Kumar Banerjee. Later he continued his training under the guidance of eminent teachers, Preetimoy Goswami and Swapan Siva in Calcutta. Subhankar has performed with distinguished vocalists such as Pandit Jasraj, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Rashid Khan, and with instrumentalists such as N. Rajam (violin), Budhaditya Mukherjee (Sitar), Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), Ronu Majumdar (flute), Shahid Parvez Khan (Sitar), Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (guitar), and Shivkumar Sharma (Santoor). He has been on numerous concert tours of most top artists both within and outside of India.
© Copyright 2001 Indian Music Society of Minnesota