Partha Pratim Roy

Trained from the tender age of 5 years, Partha Pratim Roy is one of the most accomplished practitioners of Indian classical music today.  Pursuing a double career in economics and music, Roy is a trained Sitar player, belonging to the Maihar school associated with the hallowed memory of Baba Alauddin Khan and such legends as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, and others.

The prodigy in him was recognised by such colossal exponents of Indian classical music as the late Ustad Karamatullah Khan, late Pandit Jnana Prakash Ghosh, late Pandit Jamini Ganguly, late Pandit Gokul Nag, and others.  His emergence as a new star on the firmament of classical Indian music seemed imminent with his superb solo performance in the presence of 1 lakh audience at the Youth Festival held at the Ranji Stadium, Calcutta, in 1978, and a three-hour solo Sitar recital at the Max Muller Bhavan, German Consulate, Calcutta, in 1980.  Married and father of a son, Roy went on with his love for music and later on earned distinction with his solo performances at North Calcutta Music Conference; Gita Music Conference; Ramakrishna Mission, Lucknow; Nishtha Sangeet Parishad, Bhillai; National Seminar of Music, Lucknow; India International Centre, New Delhi; India Habitat Centre – HCL Concert, New Delhi; Attic, New Delhi; Epicentre, Gurgaon; Ninaad Music Festival, Jodhpur; Sangeet Ashram, Jaipur, Swaralaya Christmas Fest, Pallakad, Kerala (2010), Soorya Festival at Trivandrum (2012), Sangeet Natak - Rasavikalpam Festival at Trishhur (2012) to name only a few of his performances in India.  Roy has also been giving performances abroad since 1996. 

Partha's major foreign performances include the ones given in Bangladesh, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Japan, Norway, France and many other parts of the globe on several occasions.  He has been interviewed by Cataluniya Radio, Washington Bangla Radio, Time Out, Jadavpur University FM Radio (Calcutta), etc.  He performed live on Albrez Television (Spain).  Several of his performances were also broadcast by Wolverhampton City Radio (U.K.) and Radio ARA (Luxemberg).  His awards include Best Instrumentalist Award, IIT (Madras) (1987); Pride of Region, Government of India; Sangeet Gaurav Award of the Award Council of India (2012), etc.

Apart from being a solo performer of Indian classical music, Partha Pratim Roy has an abiding interest in various other musical genres, and in the same vein he had the privilege of working with the late legendary Pandit Ananda Shankar in the latter’s orchestra.  He has also scored music for ballets and television serials and worked with eminent personalities like Utpalendu Chakraborty, Madhabi Mukherjee, Swapan Sen, Kalyan Sen Barat, V. Balsara, Dilip Roy, etc.  He has also composed music for dance ballets and worked with Pandit Vijay Shankar, the late Pandit Omprakash Maharaj, Rani Karnaa, and many others.

He has recently formed his own fusion music troupe with a view to preserving and propagating traditional Indian culture the world round.  The fusion music created by him, mainly based on Sitar, Sarod, Dhol, Khol, Tabla, and various other Indian and western musical instruments, is a class by itself, being poles apart from the others in vogue.