Cultural Program - Sunday

One of the best-known Sarod players of the present generation, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, has long achieved that order of excellence and popular acceptability, which ensure one's place in posterity. Early initiation into music by his grandfather, Late Bibhuti Ranjan Majumdar and later his father, Late Ranjan Majumdar, nurtured Tejendra's considerable talent. Vocal and rhythm training under Late Pandit Amaresh Chowdhury and Sri Anil Palit further ensured a holistic musical development in him. Tejendra was then accepted by Late Ustad Bahadur Khan as his disciple.

Eighteen years of intensive study under him matured his talent into a true genius. Recognition of it came 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. After the untimely demise of his guru, he studied under Late Sri Ajay Sinha Roy and then under one of the Legends of Indian Music – Swar-Samrat Late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, until his demise. 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. 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. He is also a Top Grade artist of A.I.R and Doordarshan.

Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar's brilliance and popularity as a classical artist 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 the Bengali films like ‘Songshoy’ and ‘Hononkal’ of Saibal Mitra, Tollylights of Arjun Chakraborty, and a lot of Telefilms. He has also composed and arranged music for different singers like Ghulam Ali, Ajoy Chakraborty, Haimanti Shukla, Arati Mukherjee, etc.

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. Within the country he is a regular artiste in the premiere concert circuit, while in Europe, Canada and in the United States, his popularity has ensured his regular representation in some of the most prestigious concerts. Within Europe, Tejendra has made his remakable popularity in the countries of France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Austria and U.K. He is also very popular in the Asian countries of U.A.E., Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Bangladesh. Constraint of space will not allow an exhaustive catalogue of this genius - but only a short representative one. In 2009, he was invited by none other than Pandit Ravishankar to perform at Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Recently, one of his composed and arranged music albums “SOUL CALL- OM NAMOH NARAYANAY” has been nominated for the 2010 GRAMMY AWARDS.

At the age of five, the musical wonder kid was placed under the tutelage of Shri Swapan Shiva celebrated artiste and teacher of Farukhabad Tabla Gharana and over the years he has been dedicating himself for learning other Gharanas from different maestros

He received awards in his early age from celebrities like Satyajit Ray in the year 1977, Pandit Ravi Shankar in the year 1985 and from President of India in 1987. Training in vocal music from his childhood made him a competent vocalist as well.

In addition to being a reputed soloist Subhankar is one of the few choicest accompanist of most prominent celebrities of our country like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. Pandit L.Subramanium, Dr. M. Balamuralikrishnan, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit M.S.Gopalkrishnan, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Pandit V.G.Jog, Ustad Imrat Hussian the cities dotting the map of the world. He has been presenting his music in famous venues of countries like U.K, U.S.A, Europe, Australia, Africa, Japan, Middle East, regularly for last eighteen years.

He performed in the prestigious “NOBEL PEACE PRIZE CONCERT” in Oslo along with a duet of Pt. Shivkumar Sharma and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia where Indian classical music was presented for the first time of this occasion in 1999.The Govt. Of Pakistan invited him to perform for the 50th anniversary of Pakistan in 1997 in Islamabad & Lahore. The President Of India took him to perform in Brazil for the “Festival of India” in 1998 and he was invited by the govt. of South Africa and Govt. of Mexico to show his musical brilliance as their guest artist.

Anindita is blessed with direct supervision and tutelage from the world renowned Choreographer, Guru Sukalyann Bhattacharya. The dance form Sukalyan’s entourage is rooted in the foundation of Indian Classical Dance styles. In addition, they include forms and inspirations from various traditional martial art forms like Kalarippayattu of Kerala and Thangta from Manipur.

Participants:  Sanjana Bhattacharya, Aishani Sengupta, Keona Sengupta, Nabosha Palit, Jia Ghosh, Srijani Sarkar, Ishani Ganguly, Jhilik Chatterjee, Monalisa Sarkar, Roshni Dutta, Ayush Ain Das, Rian Sengupta, Titli Bhattacharjee, Sarika Bhattacharjee, Ishani  Datta, Doyel Datta, Oishika Ghosh Roy, Ipshita Nandy, Sonali Bhattacharya, Sonia Datta, Sangita Sengupta, Anwesha Chowdhury, Aritrika Mukherjee, Sharmila Mukherjee, Monika Chakraborty, Ishita Bhattacharjee, Mahuya Ghosal, Indrani Basu, Jagannath and Anindita Mukhopadhyay.

Costume and Props by Saheli Mahapatra (from India)