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 Arnab Chakrabarty (b. 1980) is widely acknowledged
as one of the finest sarod players of the younger
generation. A one-page synopsis of his career is
provided below: Musical Education Born in Mumbai in
1980, Arnab Chakrabarty began his musical education
at the age of four and had the bulk of his training
under the sarod maestro Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta of
the Seniya-Shahjahanpur Gharana. Arnab presently
receives instruction from Prof. Kalyan Mukherjea,
one of the senior-most disciples of Pt. Radhika
Mohan Maitra, sitar maestro Vinayak Chittar of the
Ittawah Gharana, and Gwalior-Agra Gharana khayal
legend Pandit Yashwantbua Joshi.
In 2002, Arnab
Chakrabarty received a Bachelor of Arts degree with
a dual concentration in Ethnomusicology and
International Relations from Hampshire College.
Concert and Recording Career: Arnab gave his debut
concert at age 13 under the auspices of Pandit
Chaturlal Memorial Society, Mumbai, followed by a
concert at age sixteen at the National Centre for
the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai. Hailed by
critics and connoisseurs alike as a prodigy, Arnab
went on his first international tour at age sixteen,
covering the United States and Canada. Subsequent
touring has seen Arnab appear at some of the
best-known stages for serious music including the
Cite de la Musique (Paris), Prague Guitar Festival
(Czech Republic), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) and
the United Nations. In India, Arnab has been invited
by prestigious music festivals such as the Sangeet
Natak Akademi Festival 2007 (Pune), Uttarpara
Sangeet Chakra (Calcutta), Radhika Mohan Maitra
Memorial Music Conference (Calcutta), IMG Britannia
Young Artist Festival (Mumbai), Pancham Nishad's
Aarohi Festival (Mumbai) and several National
Television broadcasts in India.
As a session artist, Arnab has worked with most of India's top-ranking
music composers and has also performed on the
background score of the 2005 Oscar-winning
documentary Born Into Brothels, with a musical score
by John McDowell. In the cross-cultural mode, Arnab
has collaborated with bluegrass guitarist Michael
Daves and virtuoso banjo player Gordon Stone who was
associated with PHISH for a number of years. Arnab
is presently a key member of composer Nishith
Mehta's collaborative ensemble, Gateways, which also
features Swiss trumpet player Martin Dahanukar,
ghatam master Somnath Roy, sarangi player Sandeep
Mishra and a number of Siddi and Dangi tribal
artists from Gujarat. Achievements: Arnab
Chakrabarty topped the list of instrumentalists at
the National Youth Festival three times in a row, in
1995, 1996 and 1997. In 1998, Arnab won the Ford
Foundation funded International Scholarship to
attend Hampshire College.
In 1999 and 2000, Arnab
gave numerous performances alongside his guru
Buddhadev Dasgupta. He has also had the distinction
of performing for Kofi Annan, the former UN
Secretary General, in September 1998. In 2002, he
built his own electrified sarod at the Lemelson
Centre for Design and Assistive Technology, Amherst,
Massachusetts. In 2005, Times Music released Arnab's
debut album, 'REFRESH', accompanied on the tabla by
Dr. Aneesh Pradhan.
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