Sandip Burman

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Sandip Burman is a tabla player from Durgapur, West Bengal, India.

At the age of six, he was accepted as disciple by Pandit Shyamal Bose of Calcutta, one of India's distinguished tabla maestros. Sandip's performances are marked with spontaneous innovation and tonal purity even when he is delivering complex rhythmic patterns at high speed. His initial trip to the United States was sponsored by the founder of Transcendental Meditation and Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Sandip Burman either performs for shows across the world or attends school-sponsored meetings. In these lessons he is known to take the same care of warming up and playing as if it were a real performance. He tunes his specialized guitar with 20 strings for around an hour prior to his lesson. Once all the students surround him he begins to play - a wide display of improvisation that seems to come from his soul. After he performs with his 20-string guitar he leaves a portion of the clinic open for questions to get to know him and learn from him. Then he moves to his expertise, the drums. His hands fly through the drums at lightning speed and precision filling the area with a melody rather than a beat. Sandip opened the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles with George Harrison, has played with Ravi Shankar and countless jazz greats, including Jack DeJohnette, Al Di Meola, Randy Brecker, Howard Levy, Paul McCandless, Andy Narell, Victor Wooten, Bela Fleck and many others.

Sandip worked with Danny Elfman and contributed to the soundtrack of Tim Burton's film, Mars Attacks!, and an IBM commercial. Sandip has recorded with Dr. L. Subramaniam and is showcased on the album Global Fusion from Warner Brothers. Sandip recently completed an all-star tour titled "East Meets Jazz" with Victor Bailey (Weather Report), Randy Brecker (Brecker Brothers), Howard Levy (Flecktones), Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra), and several others.

Currently, Sandip tours 170 days out of the year, with such dates as solo performances at the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Street Scene (San Diego), First Night Providence (Rhode Island), House of Blues Chicago, Nelson Atkins Museum (Kansas City), Wolftrap (Washington, D.C.), Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles), Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Colorado), and the Sterngrove Festival (San Francisco). Before concerts, Sandip often takes the time to conduct music clinics at the local high schools and universities. Some schools gifted with his appearances are Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, Columbia University and Vanderbilt University, as well as appearances at High Schools across the nation.

He has been a visiting faculty member at the Rotterdam Conservatory in Holland and has toured and taught in the United States, Europe, Mexico, North Africa, Israel, and Canada. ^[1]