Biography
Arnab Chakrabarty (b. 1980) is one of the very few competent and aesthetically rich Sarode players from India, although to describe him only on the basis of his age does him injustice, for his musical virtues reveal him in the perspective of the top-ranking Sarode players today. While he has cultivated his playing technique to impeccable levels, Arnab's performances focus on the aesthetics of interpretation of a raga, rather than demonstrating his skill, which follows as a matter of course.
Arnab had his initial training on the Sarode from Brij Narayan and Buddhadev Das Gupta. He is now studying with Professor Kalyan Mukherjea, one of the senior disciples of the Sarode maestro, Radhika Mohan Maitra (1917-1981). Arnab also seeks occasional guidance from Yashwantbuwa Joshi, a veteran vocalist of the Gwalior tradition.
Arnab Chakrabarty is one of the very few professional instrumentalists from India who combine rigorous traditional training in music with a modern education. Arnab graduated in 2002 from Hampshire College (Amherst, Massachusetts, USA), which he attended on a Ford Foundation scholarship, with degrees in Ethnomusicology and International Relations. The combination of his traditional knowledge with the ability to pose critical questions makes Arnab a relentlessly improving student and one of the most effective teachers of his subject as well.
Arnab Chakrabarty
Arnab Chakrabarty in a concert at Budapest
Arnab Chakrabarty in a concert
Arnab Chakrabarty in a concert
Arnab Chakrabarty performing at Budapest Concert
Career
Arnab has been performing in public since 1993, but it was in 1996-97, at the age of 16, that he started giving regular professional performances. Arnab graduated in 2002 from Hampshire College, USA, and has been a full-time professional musician since 2003. His concert and teaching engagements have taken him worldwide, but have been more focused on India and North America, although he has also concertized in Europe and North Africa. Thus far, he has given almost four hundred professional concerts at serious venues.
Programs
Hindustaani Classical Sarod rendition (Sarod Vadan) by Arnab Chakrabarty. The sarod is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. It is especially popular because of its meend.
Awards & Achievements
It was in 1996 that Arnab gave his first public concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Bombay (now Mumbai). He has, since, given over 350 recitals, most of them professional. In India, Arnab has appeared at the Uttarpara Sangit Chakra (Calcutta), Radhika Mohan Maitra Memorial Music Conference (Calcutta), Sadarang Conference (Calcutta), Pancham Nishad's Aarohi Festival (Mumbai), Sangeet Natak Akademi Festival (Pune), and the HCL Concert Series (New Delhi), to name a few.
In course of his overseas travels, Arnab has performed at the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the UN (New York), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center, Smith College, Vassar College, Thompson Center (Chicago City Hall), The Birmingham Festival (Alabama), North Africa, Prague (Czech Republic) and the Leeds College of Music (UK).
As a recording artiste, Arnab has worked both in the Indian and American film industries, and has been featured as a soloist on numerous motion picture soundtracks, including that of the 2005 Oscar winner, Born into Brothels. He presently has one solo recording to his credit, published by Times Music (India) in 2005, and has recently recorded his second CD, which is expected to be released in March 2010.
See also
Contact