Soumen Nandy

Percussion Tabla

2 minute read

Soumen Nandy is a young tabla maestro from West Bengal. He trained under Pandit Pankaj Chatterjee of the Farukhabad gharana, and is a regular on the finest stages of Kolkata’s classical music scene.

His style is energetic yet sensitive, and has been appreciated by numerous top-level musicians – in recent years he has formed an acclaimed partnership with Imdadkhani sitar master Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee.

Soumen Nandy performed at the Darbar Festival in 2013, 2017, and 2019, collaborating with eminent musicians such as Ustad Bhudadhitya Mukherjee and Sabir Sultan Khan. His performances were marked by his intricate tabla rhythms and profound musicality, enriching the festival experience. Nandy’s collaboration with these renowned artists highlighted the beauty of Indian classical music, blending tradition with exceptional virtuosity, and left a lasting impression on the audience.

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Patri Satish Kumar, Amrit Nataraj, & Triplicane Sekhar | Dons of Percussion

Recorded at Darbar Festival 2017, on 9th November, at London’s Sadler’s Wells. Musicians: - Patri Satish Kumar (mridangam) - Tavil Triplicane Sekhar (thavil) - Amrit Nataraj (kanjira) Three superb exponents of Carnatic rhythm trade off and join forces - Patri Satish Kumar (mridangam), Tavil Triplicane Sekhar (thavil), and Amrit Nataraj (kanjira). Learn more about the music: Patri Satish Kumar is one of India’s leading mridangam players, known for fine dynamic control and architectural solo phrasings. First inducted into music by his violinist mother, who noticed his talent at tapping his school lunchbox in rhythm, he went on to study under three Andhra Pradesh gurus - S Ramachandramurthy, VA Swami and V Narasimham. He credits his teachers with broadening his mind, recounting that they never set him ambitious goals beyond immersing into the music as fully as he could. He says that “the mridangam chose me and not the other way around”. But it was on kanjira that he got his early break, reasoning that it would allow him to accompany top mridangam artists and perhaps fill in for them on occasion. It worked - he was soon accepted as a mridangam accompanist, and has now worked with almost all of today’s top Carnatic artists. He has worked in jazz settings too, and his ‘Dancing Drums’ project involves a large ensemble of layered percussion instruments. But his forays into fusion have not diluted his classical playing, which still forms the focal point of his stellar career. Subscribe to the Darbar Player to access the full, uncut performance