Going the Hindustani way

North Indian classical music concert enthralls Lankans :

Ishara Jayawardane

Chatterjee’s achievements abroad

* Vocal music teacher at the dance and music teaching centre Dhaka by the invitation of the High Commission of India, Dhaka, for three years, effective from August 2004 till 2007

* Three weeks’ workshop as an expert teacher at the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, London, UK during July-Aug. 2006

* Advance training of Indian classical music at the University of Visual and Performing Arts Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2006

* Indian classical music training at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki, Finland in Sept 2003

* Indian classical music training at the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory, Finland in 2004

* Basics of Indian classical music at the University of Central England, Birmingham, UK in 2000

* Workshop on Indian classical music at the Shanto Marium University of Creative Technology, Dhaka in 2005

Chatterjee’s work and contribution

* Research work on ‘Different Styles of Thumri’ and awarded junior fellowship by the Indian Human Resource Development Ministry’s Culture Department

* Expert cum presenter of the TV film, Light Classical Music-Thumri produced by Educational Media Research Centre, Jodhpur for U.G.C academic program

* Regular performer as a singer in the audio program produced by the Central Institute of Educational Technology of NCERT, which are being used at the Educational Institute for Academic and Broadcast purposes

Tamasha, a company established for the promotion of Performing Arts focuses on the development of classical music and dance in Sri Lanka as well as other countries. Their newest venture Sangeethabimana World Music Concert took over the British School Auditorium last week.

Renown Hindustani classical vocalist Pt Sarati Chatterjee visited the isle to take part in the event. He did not hesitate to share some of his views with the Daily News.

“My father Pandit Arun Chatterjee is my guru. My musical training started from the first day you could say. But later on I pursued my academic career doing my Bachelor of Technology in Rubber Technology,” noted the musician who had been brought up in a musical atmosphere.

Chatterjee says that music is his passion and favourite attraction. He was trained by his father and did a post graduate course in music. Then he worked for an engineering company for nine months.

“Right from the beginning I wanted to be a fully fledged musician. My other teachers are Pandit Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra. They belong to Benares Gharana. It is a particular style which you learn and perform,” he explained.

Chatterjee had performed concerts all over the world and he has a lot of students in India and abroad. He had conducted a number of international workshops. “I believe music has no specific language. It is not a restricted to a particular country, region or group of people. Everybody loves all kinds of music. You get a variety of musical genres in every corner of the world. We wanted to have a musical genre irrespective of country or region. It should focus solely on music. Being an Indian and classical musician I should have my own identity but that does not mean that I am bringing out only the Indian essence. I am going to perform something which is a combination of Indian music and Sri Lankan music, ”said Chatterjee.

He explained that this is the idea behind his performance with five Sri Lankan musicians in the concert. The only Indian who will perform at the event will be Chatterjee. All the rest are from Sri Lanka.

“We have special interest in North Indian Classical music because I’m a violinist. I’ve learnt under Pandit Somasiri Illesinghe,” said Tamasha and Project Management and Engineering Consultants Chairman Chitral Panditha. Tamasha had organised around nine concerts from 2000. Sangeethabimana World Music Concert is their 10th concert to coincide with their 10th anniversary celebrations.

“There was a drought in the field of classical music when we incepted Tamasha. There were no good performances in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was going through a conflict during that period but we took the initiative to start high quality North Indian Classical music and dance performances,” Panditha noted. Tamasha invited a number of Indian artistes to perform in their concerts. Sarati Chatterjee was one of the artistes who came in 2003 to perform. This strengthened the relationship between Sri Lanka and India.

“We had so many ideas which would take us to the future like getting our artistes to perform in India as well as some Indian artistes to perform in Sri Lanka. My guruji and I performed in Delhi in 2005,” Panditha recalled.

He added that there are many students who are learning North Indian classical music. Good performances are scarce. The students need to watch quality performances to improve their own style. This is the main point behind Tamasha’s Sangeethabimana World Music Concert.

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