Vidushi Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay


Vidushi Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay , one of the leading classical vocalists of the present generation of India, is an exponent of Lucknow, Patiala and Indore Gharana. The eldest daughter of the legendary Tabla maestro Pandit Sankha Chatterjee and Late Sujata Chatterjee, Sangeeta, is a rare vocalist to have received extensive training from

 

 

  1. Sangeetacharya Chinmoy Lahiri - Luckhnow Gharana of Khayal, Different Thumris, Bhajan, Gazal, Raga-based Bengali songs
     
  2. Ustad Munawar Ali Khan - Patiala Gharana (the worthy son of the Great Ustad Bade Ghulamali Khan) of Khayal, Different Thumris and Ghazals
     
  3. Pandit Kamal Bandyopadhyay - Indore Gharana (the most authoritative disciple of the Great Ustad Ameer Khan) of Ameerkhani Style of Khayal singing
     


Groomed in an atmosphere surrounded by legendary maestros like Ustad Keramattulla Khan, Ustad Allarakha Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit V.G.Jog, Pandit Kishen Maharaj, Ustad Zakir Hossain, to name a few, and their priced performances and advices, Sangeeta became extremely enriched with very high level of classical music at a very tender age. She has also studied Bengali Kirtan from Vidushi Chabi Bandyopadhyay, Old Bengali songs from Sri Chandidas Mal, Bengali folk song from Sri Paresh Dev and Bhajan from Pt. B. D. Patekar.

Sangeeta is blessed with a golden voice, ranging more than three octaves, with the ultimate soprano and gorgeous tonality. Immense knowledge, musical aesthetics, perfection and impeccable mastery over the Classical and Semi Classical Vocal genre blended together with tradition, imagination and originality are the salient features of Sangeeta’s music. Her performance encompasses the styles and mostly the priceless compositions established by Sangeetacharya Chinmoy Lahiri, Ustad Bade Ghoolamali Khan, and Ustad Ameer Khan. Her specialisation lies in rendering subtle, intricate and emotional movements of notes with perfect “Ragdari” in Vistar, stunning rhythmic variations in Bat & Boltan, fast and wide variety of effortless movement, highlighting all the forms like Murchana, Alankar, Sapat, Halak, Gamak, Meerkhand in Tan & Sargam. Although her debut performance as a child prodigy was at the age of five, she was among the most fortunate students to perform several concerts as a co-singer with Guru Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri at the age of fifteen. Her first international performance was at the “LA VOCE” International music festival of Italy in 1983. Since last twenty five years she has been enthralling her audiences at numerous prestigious conferences in India, USA, Canada, Germany, Italy, UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands and many other countries, through her magical performances.

Sangeeta is a "TOP" grade musician of All India Radio and Television, an artist of ICCR, a first class Bachelor of Economics from Jadavpur University and Master in Music from Rabindra Bharati University. She has extensively performed at several Cross cultural musical fusion projects together with famous musicians like William Parker, Bill Cole, Hamid Drake, Cooper Moore, Jocelyn B. Smith, Peter Michael Hamel, Christian Ivan, Bukhard Kehring, Judy Niemack, Ramesh Weeretunga, Abbos Kossimov, Mohamed Reza and many others from Europe, America, Middle East and so on. One of her nationally released CDs namely KHAYAL from SAREGAMA India limited was nominated under the best Indian classical vocal album by the Global Indian Music Awards in 2013. The widely appreciated  international CD releases (world premier) are “Shruti”(2002), “Bhakti”(2006), “Puja”(2008), “Double Sunrise over Neptune"(2008) & "Sangita”(2003) which are available in iTunes Store. One of her songs "Prayer" has been featured as Best Indian Import in a musical collage called ‘’India CD’ (2007) by Petrol. She is the first Indian vocalist to perform at Son d'Hiver Festival Paris, Vision Jazz Festival New York, Gong Festival Torino and Beethovenfest Bonn (created landmark in the history of world music by singing vocal duo with the famous soprano singer Christian Ivan), and LA VOCE vocal music festival Parma.

 

Sangeeta has also rendered master classes in various prestigious institution like, IIMC - Cini Foundation Venice,, Bharatiya Vidya Bhaban London, Hochschule der Kunste Berlin, (Hans Eisler Musik Hochschule) Jazz Institute Berlin, Hochschule fur Musik both Dressden and Hamburg to name a few. She has designed a twelve episode seminar on music appreciation for ITC SRA Kolkata together with Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta. She is the founder of SANGEET AMRITAM, an institution dedicated to the promotion of good music and musical crossover.