|
Sandip
Chakravarty was born in London,
a disciple of
Pandit Govind Chatterjee
Farukhabad Gharana. Starting
at the age of 5, Sandip was fascinated
by a Tabla (Asian drums) performance
by Ustaad
Zakhir Hussain. He was intrigued
by the performance and decided that
was it, THAT’s what he wanted
to play! Sandip’s father Late
Nihar Ranjan Chakravarty (Bangladesh)
who was a government employee in
the UK, managed to find a used pair
of Tablas.
Sandip was ecstatic and thought
it was the best Christmas gift he
had ever received. He couldn’t get
enough of the tablas, from morning
till night wasn’t sufficient enough!
Although he didn’t know any syllables,
he used to hit the tablas and make
some kind of noise. This led on
to Sandip’s mother, Late Gouri Chakravarty
feeling that he had a good sense
of rhythm.
|
 |
 |
She decided to take
Sandip to Calcutta (a city well
known for Indian classical music)
in order for Sandip to specialise
in Indian music. His sister Nandita
accompanied him and their mother
also, to gain some classical vocal
training. So, at the tender age
of seven, Sandip began his journey
into “ Classical “music. He successfully
completed theory and practical exams
on tablas. Nothing too fancy for
the first or second year, but it
gradually became tough!
At the age of 14 Sandip had to come
back to London as his father fell
seriously ill. Sandip completed
his GCSEs in Rokeby school, Stratford,
however, whilst preparing to start
college, he experienced the tragedy
of his father's demise. Despite
this, Sandip still completed his
diploma in Computer Science and
went on to university. |
At
the age of 16 Sandip made his
major public debut appearing at
the Royal
Albert Hall, London. He
was representing Newham Borough
the Asian section. Since then
he never looked back. Sandip was
getting well known in the Bangladeshi
community from where he started
his music career. He started touring
UK, Europe and the United States.
His performance made a powerful
impression wherever he played.
Sandip has had a enormous amount
of support from many UK artists
to whom he will be forever indebted
to.His accompaniment experience
includes major artists from India
and Bangladesh to name a few amongst
them: Vocalists Anup Jalota, Saikot
Mitra, Fareeda parvin, Manohar
Udhas and Nirmal Udhas, ( Bollywood
Blockbuster movie Dil Se), Sitarist
Subroto Roy Chowdhury, Santoor
Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, Ustaad
Fida Hussain. He also performed
for BBC4
at the Breckon Jazz Festival.
|
 |
 |
Sandip has worked
with Legendary Bollywood music director
Bappi Lahiri. He has performed numerous
concerts and recordings with Bappi
Lahiri. Sandip is involved with
one of the UK’s prestigious
Jazz band John
Mayers Indo Jazz Fusions.
He has tirelessly toured with them
in various live concerts.
In 2003, Sandip was invited by Sir
Paul McCartney
and Heather
McCartney,
his wife, for a private performance
at their residence. Over the years
Sandip has cultivated an unprecedented
reputation as a musician who can
easily move between traditional
and popular music styles from all
cultures.
Sandip says…
I’d just like to play with
some good musicians, have a great
time doing it, and potentially be
able to make a nice living doing
something I love and enjoy doing. |
|
