Introducing Asit Ghosh

Obhi and I have already introduced our two guest singers for The Story of Gitanjali: Manini and Sayan.

Now I am introducing another of our artistes: Asit Ghosh (Pintu). He will be accompanying us on tabla, pakhawaj and khol (Indian percussion instruments) for The Story of Gitanjali in Brussels on 23 September 2012.

He was the percussionist for our film version of Chitrangada. Asit has his own sweet and very gentle style. His playing doesn’t overpower the singers. He knows how to play softly with Tagore songs. The role of the percussionist in Tagore’s dance-dramas is quite tough as the percussionist sets the pace for all the dancers, singers and musicians.

Asit has trained with different Gurus from different gharanas (styles):

• Professor Dulal Mukherjee – Banaras gharana (tabla)
• Professor Manas Das Gupta – Farukabad gharana (tabla)
• Professor Swapan Ghosh – Bishnupur gharana (pakhawaj)
• Pandit Jayanta Bose – Benaras gharana (tabla).

He completed his BMus in Tabla & Pakhawaj in 1998 and his MMus in Tabla, Pakawaj in 2000, both from Visva-Bharati University.

He won first prize as an accompanist from three  different festivals: East  Zone Youth Festival in 1998, National Youth Festival in 1999 and SAARC Festival in 1999.

He has taken part in many programmes with different groups in Santiniketan, as well as on All India Radio and Doordarshan (Indian television).

He regularly accompanies performances by pupils of Santiniketan Sishuthirtha.

He was the percussionist for the CD Jete chai mon – Desh, the Musical journey – released by Prime Music.