Kushal Das and Samar Saha Artist Profiles

Kushal K. Das & Samar Saha	Profile
Kushal K. Das, Sitar Player Kushal Das, a north Indian solo sitarist was born to a highly enriched musical family of Calcutta. His grandfather Late Bimal Ch. Das was a renowned Esraj player while his father Shri Sailen Das and uncle Sri Santanu Das are sitarist-s of high repute. Kushal started his talim from the age of seven. He received intensive and rigorous training in advanced sitar techniques and the art of music making under the affectionate guidance of Prof. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay, the renowned sitar maestro and academician. He also had the proud privilege of having learnt from great musicians like, Pt. Manas Chakraborty, Pt. Ramkrishna Basu and Late Pt. Ajoy Sinha Roy. With a profound knowledge of musical understanding and raga improvisation Kushal is now considered as one of the foremost torchbearers of the tradition of Indian classical Instrumental Music. The critics and connoisseurs have acknowledged him as a worthy successor of his idol, the legendary maestro Late Pandit Nikhil Bandyopadhyay. His concerts are always marked for their aesthetic appeal and insight with a fine command of technical expertise. With maturity as his forte Kushal thus have the predominant virtues of Indian heritage and music. An "A" grade musician of All India Radio and Television, he is a recipient of Sangeet Visharad from Pracheen Kala Kendra-of Chandigarh and Sur-Mani form Sur Singar Samsad of Mumbai. Kushal has participated in most of the major music festivals in India. To name a few, Tansen Music Conference, Dover Lane Music Conference, ITC Sangeet Sammelan & Mini Sangeet Sammelans, State Music Academy Annual Conference, Saltlake Music Conference, All India Radio concerts are some of the important ones. His tours abroad covered Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Italy, while his recent tour to Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Bangladesh was marked with considerable success and appreciation Samar Saha, Tabla Player Trained in Banaras gharana style of tabla playing, Samar Saha showed a great promise at a very young age. Samar's initial training started at a very tender age under the guidance of his father Shri Sudhangsu Bhusan Saha and brother Shri Tarak Saha, a tabla player of repute. His formal training started under the tutelage of Shri Satchidananda Goswami and then flowered under the able guidance of Shri Krishna Kumar Ganguly (Natubabu) of Banaras Gharana. A highly sought after tabla accompanist, Samar has the privilege of accompanying almost all the top ranking artists of Hindustani music. Samar Saha is a full time senior faculty member of ITC Sangeet Research Academy since its very inception in 1978. He has toured USA with ITC-SRA musicians six times.