PAGE-1
Introduction   |   Profile   |   About Surbahar
Go to Page-2 for Photo Gallery and Contacts

Watch his VIDEOS and listen to his MUSIC

Introduction

Welcome to the personal website of Souravbrata Chakraborty, one of the most promising musicians of the years to come.

This website endeavours to elaborate the talent and versatility of this young Sitarist who is also an accomplished Surbahar player.

Souravbrata earnestly welcomes comments, suggestions and criticisms from all, and, above all, the whole-hearted blessings from the elders and good wishes of everyone.

Profile

Souravbrata is an instrumentalist of the new generation hailing from the Imdadkhani Gharana. He was initiated into playing the sitar at the age of 12 by his mother, Smt. Mala Chakraborty. After that he went to get talim from the renowned veteran Sitar Maestro Pt. Manilal Nag. After learning from him, he went to receive talim of Gayaki Ang from the legendary Sitar Maestro Pt. Kashinath Mukherjee of Imdadkhani Gharana. He learned under Shri Koushik Sil (son of Pt. Amiya Sil of Imdadkhani Gharana) and also learned under the famous musicologist and sitar maestro Dr. Pradip Kumar Chakraborty. He also took some talim of Surbahar from the veteran Sitar Maestro Shri Nitai Bose. Now a days, along with the sitar, he also plays the Surbahar in public conferences. His style resembles the depth and melody of old Dhrupad Angi Khayal style. He was fortunate to receive blessings from a number of gifted musicians of our country, like, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Firoz Dastur and Ustad Vilayat Khan.

Some of his achievements:

• He has been conferred the Suramani Award by Sursingar Sangeet Samsad.

• He had played both Sitar and Surbahar in Chatu Babu & Latu Babu's house concert.

• Played at the Aurobinda Institute of Culture.

• Played at the prestigeous Senia Sangeet Sammelan.

• Played in house concert of Pt. Netai Bose and got praise from many eminent musicians.

• Secured First Prize in the Maya Mitra Memorial Instrumental Competition.

• Performed in "AAA" Channel as an honorable artiste.

• Also played at Mahfil.

• Had an interview published in Sur Sangbad with Bishoke Sil, who was surprised after listening to his recital in a concert.

• Performed in Bharatiya Sanskriti Sansad.

• Played at the Haldia Music Conference, Bhawanipur Sangeet Sammelan, Avedananda Math (at Swami Avedananda Centenary Hall), Haldia.

• In the year 2009 March, he toured Singapore and played at the 'Singapore Indian Fine Arts Association Festival'.

Video Demos with Music Samples

Click on the following links to view music videos of some performances of Souravbrata through YouTube.

Please note that unless you have a broadband internet connection of professional range (atleast 512 KBPS or above), when you will watch a video for the first time, there will be jerks and haltages every now and then till the end. However, when you watch it second time onwards in the same machine, it will always play smoothly, unless you clear the cache of your machine or it gets automatically cleared because of not watching it for months together. The time duration for each of the videos have been mentioned in the links below. The longer the time, the more jerks for the first time :

About Surbahar

Surbahar is essentially a bass sitar. It is substantially larger and is tuned anywhere from four steps to an octave lower than a regular sitar. The surbahar has an advantage over sitar in that it has a longer sustain and an ability to meend (glissando) up to an octave in a single fret. Therefore it is possible to play complex melodies without using more than a single fret. This instrument is very well suited to long slow alaps.