Sitar – The Sound of India | Purbayan Chatterjee & Jay Dabgar

One of India’s most celebrated sitar players Pandit Purbayan Chatterjee is joined by table virtuoso Jay Dabgar on a national tour presenting a series of exciting concerts featuring instrument that best captures the essence of Indian traditional music.

Experience musical virtuosity with unusual energy, skills and dynamic improvisation. Purbayan Chatterjee presents the sitar in all its shades and textures both melodic and playful and wistful and spiritual. The music ranges from meditational to sheer energy and excitement.

Weaving a musical fabric Purbayan Chatterjee & Jay Dabgar present their Brisbane concert as part of a national tour and invite Queensland audiences to enjoy an evening of classical Indian music at the Queensland Multicultural Centre, home of the Brisbane Multicultural Arts Centre.

The Artists

Purbayan Chatterjee

Based in Mumbai, India, Purbayan is one of the finest contemporary Sitar players performing Indian Classical music. Through the mesmerising sounds of his Sitar playing, he has attained a reputation as one of the great sitar players of his generation. Purbayan belongs to the famous Senia Maihar Gharana, the musical school established by, Baba Allauddin Khan (the guru of renowned artists including Ustad Ali Akbar Khan). Purbayan also studied with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan on the sarod as well as with sitar players Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. In addition to his mastery of North Indian raga music, he also performs with musicians from the South Indian raga tradition and participates in various fusion projects with jazz. His music has been appreciated by jazz greats, such as Chick Corea, Bella Fleck, and Pat Metheney, as well as by world musicians all over the globe. In addition to this, he is an astounding vocalist and has lent his soulful voice to many mellifluous compositions. Purbayan has designed the DWO, which is a Doppelganger of the Indian Sitar. Purbayan's DWO celebrates the oneness of two. It creates sound where the acoustic and the digital, where the ancient and the modern, where the ethnic and the urban, where the esoteric and the virtuosic, all complement each other and become one.
More info: www.purbayan.com

Jay Dabgar

Jay Dabgar comes from a family of Tabla-makers in India and brings with him the legacy of the famous Benaras Gharaana style of Tabla-playing. Jay studied tabla as student of late Pandit Nandan Mehta and Pandit Pooran Maharaj. Jay brings over 25 years of experience as a professional musician. He has won several national accolades and has performed extensively with many renowned musicians including Grammy Award winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Grammy Award nominee Ustad Shujaat Khan, Pandit Sugato Naag, Smt Manju Mehta, and many renowned musicians in India and abroad. Since moving to Australia in 2006, Jay has made an outstanding contribution to the Australian music industry and plays regularly with visiting Indian musicains as well as key Australian world music/ jazz and acoustic artists.
More info: www.jaydabgar.com

Supported by BEMAC