Purbayan Chatterjee: The sitar virtuoso

Purbayan Chatterjee

Beginning with the joyful and romantic raga Anandi Kalyan, he performed to a receptive audience. First came the aalap, then jor and then the composition in teen taal. Truly Chatterjee wove magic with his fingers.

Then came the patriotic Raga Desh, which the virtuoso artist described as a "sweet, evergreen" piece. Interspersed with the instrumental rendition were his vocals. The end effect of this piece was to lift one's spirits as the music built up to a crescendo.

Ably accompanying him was the upcoming and dextrous tabla player Anubrata Chatterjee, the son of talented tabla artiste Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. The duo's jugalbandi won many rounds of applause.

For Purbayan, this is his second visit to Dhaka. As he says, the current concert was a milestone as he played to a "cosy, intimate gathering". In his words, "I am here to represent my country. I am grateful to have such a discerning audience."

Dhaka is just one stop for Purbayan. The extensively travelled artiste has staged sitar concerts in UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Germany, France and Doha, Qatar. He has also performed at almost all the annual Indian music conferences, prestigious festivals and symposiums at concert halls around the world. Now as he leaves for Kolkata where he is based, he is readying for a concert next month with the famous tabla player Zakir Hussain. Also on the horizon are performances in Mumbai (with Pandit Anindo) and Gujarat, India.

Purbayan has several CDs and awards to his credit as well. Purbayan's initiation into music is remarkable. At the age of three, he surprised his family and friends with his ability to annotate every single song that he heard. At the age of four, he was initiated to the sitar by his father Parthapratim Chatterjee, a disciple of Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Believe it or not, Purbayan gave his first sensational performance at the age of five at the India festival in Basel, Switzerland in 1982. Today he is regarded as a gifted frontrunner of the Senia-Maihar gharana of Baba Alauddin Khan and an adept musician in the Indian classical music scenario. For the last few years he has been receiving taalim (training) from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Purbayan's recent visit to Dhaka is yet another landmark in his eventful musical career.