SAANJH SANDHYA / सांझ संगीत
A Concert of Evening Ragas
by Smt. Shashwati Mandal (Vocal)
Accompanied by
Shri Kuntal Roy (Tabla)
and
Shri Mausam (Harmonium)
Smt. Shashwati Mandal was born in Gwalior in a family of musicians. Her maternal grandfather Pt. Balabhau Umdekar 'Kundalguru' was a darbar-gayak (court musician) at the royal court of Gwalior, and a singer of the Gwalior gharana.
Shashwati started her early classical training under the guidance of her mother, Smt. Kamal Mandal. Thereafter, she received a Department of Culture (Govt of India) scholarship to study with the veteran Gwalior gharana singer Pt. Balasaheb Poonchhwale, who instilled into her the finer nuances of Gwalior gayaki, and also trained her into the art of Tappa singing, the vibrant semi-classical genre. She
continued her training with her gurus, Balasaheb Poonchhwale and Kamal Mandal.
She also studied briefly under Purnima Chaudhuri for Thumri singing. She also received Sanskriti Foundation's Mani Mann Fellowship to study with Madhup Mudgal of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi. In addition, she is heavily influenced by the gayaki of Kumar Gandharva, and the repertoire of Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana.
She has performed extensively in India and abroad in many prestigious music festivals. She is a Top grade artist at All India Radio and is an empaneled artist at
Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
Shashwati also served as a staff artist in All India Radio, Bhopal and an Assistant Professor of Music in Mumbai University, Mumbai.
Shri Kuntal Roy is an internationally renowned maestro in the field of Indian Classical Tabla. Originally from Kolkata, now he extensively tours and performs around the world. Over the last two decades, he has presented numerous tabla solo as well as accompaniment concerts with various vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers around the world. He is well known for presenting a rich repertoire of music in both traditional as well as in a modern manner, while respecting the various Gharana traditions from tabla. Along with the repertoire, his presentations focus on contributions of rhythm to melody, tonal clarity and precision.
He received his training from none other than the legendary tabla acharya Pandit Shankar Ghosh, well respected for his extensive research in tabla and the field of rhythm. He also received his earlier training from Shri Narayan Chandra Haldar and Shri Radha Raman Nath.
Shri Mausam is a born rasika of music and plays both harmonium and tabla with great feeling. He has accompanied several notable musicians such as Pt Vidyadhar Vyas, Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, Smt Neela Bhagwat, Smt Sunanda Patnaik and, Smt Shashwati Mandal. He is also a faculty member in Computer Science and School of Artificial Intelligence at IIT Delhi and was earlier a faculty member at University of Washington, Seattle. Mausam also studied vocal music in Seattle from late Dr. Sharad Gadre of Gwalior gharana.
