Samir Chatterjee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pandit Samir Chatterjee is a virtuoso tabla player from India. He travels widely across the world throughout the year performing in numerous festivals as a soloist or with other outstanding musicians from both Indian and western traditions. His compositions are widely acclaimed as well as his writings.
Chatterjee began his studies early with Pandit Bankim Ghosh, Pandit Balaram Mukherjee, Pandit Rathin Dhar and Mohammad Salim. His later formation as a musician occurred under the guidance of Pandit Amalesh Chatterjee (since 1966) and Pandit Shyamal Bose (since 1984). All of Samir's teachers have been from the Farrukhabad Gharana (school) of tabla playing, which he now represents.
All India Radio maintains Pandit Chatterjee as an A-rated artist. He can be heard on numerous recordings featuring as soloist, accompanying many of India's greatest musicians and in collaboration with western musicians of outstanding caliber. In concert Pandit Chatterjee has accompanied many of India's greatest musicians including Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ud. Vilayat Khan, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Pt. V.G. Jog, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Brij Bhusan Kabra, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Ud. Amjad Ali Khan, Ud. Salamat Ali Khan, Ud. Sultan Khan, Ud. Munawar Ali Khan, Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, Smt. Prabha Atre, Pt. Gour Goswami, Pt. Vijay Raghav Rao, Pt. G. S. Sachdev, Pt. Raghunath Seth, Ud. Bahadur Khan, Pt. Shyam Ganguly, Pt. Budhhadev Dasgupta, Pt. Manilal Nag, Ud. Ashis Khan, Shujat Khan, Ajoy Chakraborty, Rashid Khan, Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar, and Debashish Bhattacharya, to name only a few.
Pandit Samir Chatterjee lives in New Jersey, where he has become a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Western music, performing with Pauline Oliveros, Ravi Coltrane, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Steve Gorn, Glen Velez, Boby Sanabria, Ben Verdery, William Parker, Dance Theater of Harlem, Ethos Percussion group, Da Capo Chamber Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva and other jazz and avant guard musicians. He is a member of jazz trios, SYNC with Ned Rothenberg and Jerome Harris and MANODHARMA with Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer. He is the composer and director of Nacho Nacho - Gypsy Storyteller and Chhand-Anand, World percussion Ensemble. He performs with Sanjay Mishra on his CD Blue Incantation featuring Jerry Garcia as guest artist.
Pandit Samir Chatterjee has been teaching for the last 25 years and many of his students are established performers. He is the Founder-Director of CHHANDAYAN, an organization dedicated to promoting and preserving Indian music and culture by conducting classes and workshops, organizing concerts, maintaining a library and running a store.
Pandit Samir Chatterjee has also a career as a musicologist and journalist, contributing to many different newspapers and periodicals. He won gold medal for his proficiency in a musical examination (equivalent to B.Mus.). He has two master degrees to his credit, in English and history. His son, Dibyarka Chatterjee is also an excellent tabla player.
