Notes of Hope: Artiste

Artistes
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has mesmerized the world with his pristine pure, delicate yet fiery music. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is one of the most well known Indian musicians today. He has pioneered the use of guitar to play Hindustani music. His collaboration with Ry Cooder for the album 'Meeting by the river' won him a Grammy Award and international acclaim paralleling that of his guru Ravi Shankar.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt was born in 1952, of a musician family of Jaipur in north western state of India, Rajasthan. Being the foremost disciple of Pt. Ravi Shankar, Vishwa Mohan belongs to that elite body of musicians which traces its origin to the Mogul emperor Akbar's court musician Tansen and his guru Swami Haridas. It was under the tutelage of Ravi Shankar that Vishwa Mohan Bhatt sought to satisfy his quest of extracting more than just the ordinary from the veena. Thus started the exercise of evolving an instrument, Mohan Veena, which would give him the musical satisfaction he desired. The most significant contribution was made by way of inventing the Mohan Veena. This instrument is an interesting blend of the musical attributes of the traditional veena and the Western Acoustic guitar. The challenge however, lay in producing the melody of the traditional guitar without compromising on the authenticity of the traditional Classical Indian Ragas. Thus there were obstacles not in terms of technicalities in creating the instrument, but also retaining melodic content and the traditional nuances of the raga, in order that the instrument would classify as a classical one.

The outcome of such pioneering work was the evolution of the distinct 'gayaki ang' on the guitar. Mohan Veena allowed him to do perfect assimilation of sitar, sarod & veena techniques on a sliding guitar. "Since childhood I had tried to modify the Veena as I was not satisfied with its sound. I felt it was incomplete. That's why first I combined it with the guitar and invented the Mohan Veena", says Bhatt.

Mohan Veena is a highly modified concord arch top, which Bhatt plays lap-style. It has 19 strings: three melody strings and four three drone strings coming out of the peg heads, and 12 sympathetic strong to tuners mounted to a piece of wood added to the side of the neck. The melody strings are on what we would consider the treble side of the neck, and the drone strings are on the bass side. The drone strings are lower in height than the melody strings to allow for unrestricted playing of the melody strings. The sympathetic strings run underneath the melody and drone strings to yet another level in the bridge. The instrument has a carved spruced top, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, and a flat, fretless, rosewood fingerboard. The Mohan Veena is under tremendous tension; the total strings pull to be in excess of 500 pounds. It is due to this high tension the tone tunes incredible with the sympathetic ringing out and strengthening each note played. This is a loud instrument made to cut through with low amplification.

For more information on Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, please visit his website at http://www.vishwamohanbhatt.com

Subhen Chaterjee

Subhen Chaterjee is one of the most sensitive tabla players of today. He has blossomed into an able and energetic tabla player who genuinely enjoys his art. Subhen plays tabla in Lucknow (a cultural mecca in north India) style, which he learnt from his guru tabla maestro Pt. Swapan Chowdhury. Not restricting himself to a single style, Subhen went on to learn the intricacies and beauty of other tabla playing styles that he introduced in his playing and which has made Subhen’s tabla sound so unique & distinctive.

Subhen, one of the finest tabla players of this generation, has accompanied such outstanding musicians as Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Smt. Girija Devi, Pt. Jasraj, Smt. Sobha Gurtu, Pt. V. G. Jog, Pt. Rajan-Sajan Misra, Ustad Rashid Khan, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Pt. Viswa Mohan Bhatt, Ustad Ashish Khan, Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar, Pt. Manilal Nag, Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan, Sri Ronu Mazumder and many others and has earned a very good name both from the audience as well as the press. Subhen is also a very fine soloist. Subhen has also had the distinction of being one of the very few tabla players to have been participating regularly for the past few years in WOMAD (World Organization of Music & Dance, founded by renowned guitar player Mr. Peter Gabriel) by collaborating with such distinguished artistes such as Paul Horn (Flautist), Mr. David Cosby (of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young famed) etc. Subhen has also created India’s leading fusion band, KARMA, (in the year 1985) which is still the only of its kind from the eastern part of India. Subhen’s recent collaboration with renowned percussionist, SIVAMANI, has enabled him to form another unique fusion band called FRIENDS OF DRUMS (F. O. D) whose main objective is to help the lesser known yet very talented musicians share stage with renowned percussionists. FOD planned for supporting old and handicapped musicians (financially or otherwise) who had served the music world for year.

Kushal Das

Kushal Das, a north indian sitarist, was born in a highly regarded musical family of Calcutta. His grandfather Late Bimal Ch. Das was a renowned Esraj player while his father Sri Sailen Das and his uncle Sri Santanu Das are sitarists of high repute. Kushal started learning sitar from the age of seven. He received intensive and rigorous training in advanced sitar techniques and the art of music making under the affectionate guidance of Prof. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay, a renowned sitar maestro and academician. He also had the proud privilege of having learnt from great musicians like, Pt. Manas Chakraborty, Pt. Ramkrishna Basu and Late Pt. Ajoy Sinha Roy.

With a profound knowledge of musical understanding and raga improvisation Kushal is now considered as one of the foremost torchbearers of the tradition of Indian classical instrumental music. The critics and connoisseurs have acknowledged him as a worthy successor of his idol, the legendary maestro Late Pt. Nikhil Bandyopadhyay. His concerts are always marked for their aesthetic appeal and insight with a fine command of technical expertise. Kushal Das combines musical depth and maturity with imagination and enormous virtuosity. His sitar playing has a rich and melodious tone that reminds one of the late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. An "A" grade musician of All India Radio and Television, he is a recipient of Sangeet Visharad from Pracheen Kala Kendra-of Chandigarh and Sur-Mani form Sur Singar Samsad of Mumbai.

Kushal has participated in most of the major music festivals in India. To name a few, Tansen music conference, Dover Lane music conference, ITC sangeet sammelan & Mini sangeet sammelans, and Salt Lake music conference are some of the important ones. His tours abroad covered Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Italy, while his recent tour to Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Bangladesh was marked with considerable success and appreciation.

Abhijit Banerjee

Born in 1964, began learning Tabla at the age of four under the guidance of Shri Tushar Kanti Bose and later received guidance from Shri Manik Pal. He then became a disciple of one of the greatest Tabla teachers of this century, the late Pt. Ghyan Prakash Ghosh. Abhijit also received lessons in vocal music from Shri Ajoy Chakraborty and in violin from Smt. Annapurna Devi.Abhijit has continually participated in major music festivals in India and worldwide, both as soloist and as accompanist. He has accompanied artists like Amjad Ali Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Parveen Sultana etc. The late Pt. Nikhil Banerjee chose him as an accompanist on his last tour to Europe in 1984.