Soham Munim
Sitarist, Fusion musician, Live show performer, One man show artist, Surbahar artist
Biography
#sitarwonderboy & the Creator of the SiGui, Soham Munim has performed widely as a soloist in Hindustani Classical as well as he has also experimented in the World-Fusion space in collaborations – which have led him to research & subsequently create his own instrument, the SiGui, uniquely adding to the existing Sitar techniques and their implementations through an original approach.
At TFN Kolkata (2018) in front of Utd Rashid Khan, Pt. Kushal Das & Pt. Jyoti Goho
At the Umang - NCPA (2012)
Soham Munim profile pic
Career
A lot of people might already have an idea with regards to some of the highlights in Soham Munim's career so far, such as his receiving Surmani (2010), to playing at the Prempiya Festival at MSU Vadodara (2012), NCPA Umang (2012), Monthly young artist baithak at the Bhavan's SPJIMR Auditorium Andheri (2012), to playing at the Aditya Birla INT Baithak (2014), Puducherry Heritage Festival (2015), India ki Khoj at IIT Gandhinagar (2016), Virasat Festival at IIT Bombay (2017), Diwali Pahat at Goregaon Sports Club (2018), at the InnerCourtyard (2018), Neyveli Bookfair (2019), SBI Corporate baithak (2020) to playing at home since the 2020 lockdown!! Featured in the National Programme of Music 2019 as an A-Grade artist of AIR & DD, empanelled with the ICCR, other than the regular regional broadcasts. This is his humble effort largely based on his talent and to some extent some goodluck, without any help or influence, as you can check for yourself that none of the industries (Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai etc), no agency or godfathers have ever promoted him. His Guru Basab Sen (originally from Kolkata) who had learned initially in his early teens in music from Sangeetacharya Pt. Radhikamohan Moitra & finally Sitar from the renowned musicologist Pt. Ajay Sinha Roy, had infact settled down as a Sadhak at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram where he teaches till date. And Soham Munim has never traded Gurus, let alone target somebody from the industry under whose wings he might grow more contacts, as such a thought had never crossed his mind for himself, although he was well aware of how so many get their initial footing. He grew up in Puducherry from age 3 and started learning Sitar there at 17. He was called to Mumbai by his father in relocating to his birthplace here where his family lives from the last 100 years. As Puducherry did not look into other than Carnatic, he had to turn towards Mumbai for starting off with Sitar as a young artist from 2008. But after successfully playing at so many of the above mentioned venues, and recognised by most of our stalwarts (Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Utd Rashid Khan etc including the late Pt. Subhankar Banerjee & Pt. Abhijit Banerjee who even accompanyied me), he found absolutely no work especially after other musicians urged him to apply to agencies which took over in a big way, around 2015, as somehow those which did not take active interest in our traditional music, only contacted him so far with Bollywood related schemes which he had to flatly refuse. While other Sitar players in the field were nicely receiving relevant 'cultural' opportunities based on a number of reasons such as family background, number of years played, Gurus' connection with the industry, or simply because they are connected to a large group / cultural institute, and probably 50 other reasons EXCEPT FOR MERIT.
Awards & Achievements
- A-Grade Artist of Akashwani -All India Radio & Doordarshan. AIR DD
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- Empanelled with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. ICCR
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- Global Music Award 2018 - Dubai for the best young Indian Fusion Instrumentalist
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- Fabindia Contest winner in 2017 for his debut World-Fusion album Begin TP .
- Sangeet Taranga Puraskaar 2017, Kolkata, for excellence in Sitar as a young artist.
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- Recipient of Surmani - 2010 by Sur Singar Samsad, Mumbai.
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- 1st Prize in Sitar at the music competition -2010 in Shanmukhananda Sangeet Vidyalaya.
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