menu
Sugato Nag (Sitar) with
Subhankar Banerjee(Tabla)

October 13 2013, 5:00 PM

Dr V Premanand Theater and Concert Hall
Normandale Community College, Bloomington, MN

  Sugato NagSubhankar Banerjee
Tickets:

Purchase advance tickets online (you save $3/ticket by purchasing in advance)

  Members, Students, Seniors (65+), and Members General Admission
Advance $12.00 $17.00
Gate $15.00 $20.00

Save further on IMSOM tickets by becoming a member for 2013. You'll save $18 - $50 over multiple concerts.
About the Artists

Sugato Nag

Music was a passion amongst all the members of the Nag family, a well known business joint family of Bengal. Sugato's father Prabir Nag's interest in music, art and culture was keen, and as a high school student, ventured to take Sarod lessons with his classmate , the young Buddhadev Das Gupta , who later on went on to become one of the finest Sarod players of the country. Mother Chameli Nag is a well known singer of Bengali songs of Dijendralal, Rajanikanto and Atul Prasad.

Being born into such a musical family, it was not surprising that music was in Sugato's blood right from the beginning. While his engineering career took up the primary focus of his life, the senior Nag resolved to provide musical training, along with the best possible education for Sugato. The constant social interactions with the Das Gupta family and continued musical guidance from Shri Das Gupta inspired Sugato to plough away on the Sitar and embark on an extremely serious and dedicated musical pursuit.  In fact lessons with Shri Buddhadev Das Gupta continued as a more informal aspect of Sugato's musical training right through the early years until he became a regular disciple of him later in life.

Sugato formally started taking sitar lessons with Late Shri Anil Roy Chowdhury, in 1971, at Shri Das Gupta's recommendation. Shri Roy Chowdhury, a much respected elder of Calcutta's music scene, was a disciple of the legendary sarod player, Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra of the famed Seniya Shahjahanpore gharana and had the uncanny knack of grooming up little musicians with unparalleled dedication. After the passing away of Anil Roy Chowdhury in 1976, Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra adopted Sugato as his own disciple. Radhika Mohan Maitra was a strict disciplinarian, a purist and perfectionist and it was under his long and arduous training in all aspects of Sitar playing that Sugato emerged as a mature and sensitive artist, while still in his teens.

Having learnt also from the eminent musician and musicologist, Shri Ajoy Sinha Roy, a senior disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan, Sugato has imbibed talim of the Maihar Gharana too. At present, Sugato is under the tutelage of sarod maestro Pt. Buddhadev Das Gupta and continues to enjoy the benefits of his guidance and his immeasurable wealth of musical knowledge.

A Sangeet Prabhakar (B. A., Music) from the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad, Sugato has a number of prestigious awards to his credit. In 1985, he was placed first in the annual music competition of the Dover Lane Music Conference. Sugato has also been a recipient of the National Talent Search Scholarship for instrumental music in 1977. Recently, Sugato has been given the honour of "Artist of the Month" by Sangeet Research Academy (SRA). His performances at the Salt Lake City Music Festival, Sangeet Research Academy, The Dover Lane Music Conference, Ramakrishna Mission Music Festival, ITC SRA Sangeet Sammelan, Rajya Sangeet Sammelan, Indo Occidental Symbiosis, Kolkata, "Arambh" Festival, Bhopal, Sangeet Natak Academy, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, Sangeet Mahabharti, Mumbai and various other institutions of music have been acclaimed greatly by critics and connoisseurs. Apart from performing all over India, Sugato has toured extensively in the US, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Holland and Japan, playing in University circuits as well as in Music Conferences and holding the audience in sway with his scintillating and exquisite performances. Sugato is a regular performing artiste of All India Radio and Doordarshan (State Television).


Subhankar Banerjee

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 year1977, 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 his 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 Khan, and many others.

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.

Apart from having played over hundred recordings published all over the world as accompanist and soloist he has been experiencing and sharing the greatness of India Classical Music along with other renowned musicians of the world as well.
He joined Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia to play with the symphony orchestra in London(Royal Festival Hall) and in Paris (Theatre de la ville). The most famous Greek clarionet   & Saxophone Player Petrolucas Halkias and Lira player Ross Dally have been regularly playing with Subhankar the Greek ethnic music and Indo Greek fusion band in different parts of Greece since 1998 in Jazz (womad) and other festivals.
He was invited by Prince Charles to perform in London with John Mc. Laughin and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia in February 2001.He was the only Indian percussionist to be invited in Tokyo to compose an orchestra with famous musicians from five other Asian countries for the best known festival in Japan., "Asian Fantasy Concert" and perform in 1996.

(Biography Sourced from Subhankar Banerjee's website http://www.subhankar.net/biography.html)

About the Venue:
Normandale Community College is located at : 9700 France Avenue South, Bloomington, MN 55431

To get to Normandale Community College, follow the directions provided here


Acknowledgments:

IMSOM’s Fall 2013 Concert Series has been made possible, in part, by funds provided by the Honeywell “Dollars for Doers” Grant, a matching grant from US Bank, and the generosity of its members and donors. This activity is funded, in part, by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s general fund. All concerts are co-sponsored by KFAI “Fresh Air” Radio (90.3 in Minneapolis/106.7 FM in St. Paul).
KFAI Logo

For further information contact:
 
Durgesh Manjure
durgeshmanjure@yahoo.com
Ameeta Kelekar ameeta@imsom.org

  Back

  

IMSOM, established in 1980, is a registered non-profit (501(c)(3)) organization serving Minneapolis-St.Paul and the greater Twin Cities Metro Area.


© Copyright 2013 Indian Music Society of Minnesota