Flute and Mandolin Jugalbandi
With music blown into his breath by father Pt. Malhar Kulkarni, Rupak Kulkarni has blossomed under the finest tutelage of flute maestro Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, to become an outstanding exponent of Maihar Gharana. As a ganda bandh shagird of Pt. Chaurasia since the tender age of 9, Rupak with arduous training and hard work, has mastered “Dhrupad, Khayal and Tantrakari ang” equally well. With concerts across the world in many countries such as Australia, America, Russia, Japan, Africa, etc. Rupak has acquired a dignified maturity in his playing at an early age. In India, Rupak has performed in all major music festivals -Sawai Gandharva (Pune), Tansen Samaroh (Gwalior), Bharti Vidya Bhavan (Kolkata), Gunidas Sammelan (Mumbai). Rupak has lent his musical prowess to many melodies hitting the chart busters. Has worked with renowned music directors from Bollywood. Films such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam (K3G), Fiza, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer and many more have him playing in not just the main songs but also in the background scores, arousing emotions varying from pathos to exuberance. Rupak has collaborated with many renowned musicians from the West as well.
Snehasish Mozumder is among those few established musicians in India who has mastered the art of playing Mandolin, and has blended it perfectly into the style of Hindustani Indian Classical Music. He started his initial training at the age of four with Tabla and then Mandolin under the guidance of his grandfather late Sri Bibhuty Ranjan Mozumder and then he took training under his father Sri Himanshu Mozumder and his uncle late Sri Ranjan Mozumder. Gradually he switched over to his cousin Tejendra Narayan Majumdar who is a well-known sarod player. He continued his study under late Acharya Ajoy Sinha Roy who was a beloved disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb,the founder of Maihar Gharana and he takes lesson of laykari under the guidance of Pandit Anil Palit who is a senior most disciple of Pandit Kishan Maharaj. Finally he came under the tutelage of Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty. Snehasish, has performed many major festivals in India like Sankat Mochan Utsav of Varanasi, Swami Haridas Sangeet Sanmelan of Mumbai,Indian Habitat Centre of Delhi, Bhowanipur Sangeeet Sanmelan, GolPark Ramkrishna Mission of Kolkata and Saltlake Music Conference of Kolkata etc, and also he has toured Europe, UK and USA and made a very good name amongst the music lovers. He is the recipient of Surmani and Jadubhatta Awards.
Subhen Chatterjee will accompany on Tabla. Subhen Chatterjee bases his style of playing to Lucknow Gharana that he learnt from his illustrious Guru tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chowdhury. Not restricting himself to one single Gharana-Subhen went on to learn the intricacies & beauty of other Gharanas that he introduced in his playing & which has made his style of playing so unique & distinctive. Subhen has also created India’s leading fusion band, KARMA, 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 whose main objective is to help the lesser known yet very talented musicians sharing stage with renowned ones.