Profile
Vidushi Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, one of the leading vocalists 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 musical training from Sangeetacharya Chinmoy Lahiri of Luckhnow Gharana, Ustad Munawar Ali Khan of Patiala Gharana (the worthy son of the Great Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan) and Pandit Kamal Bandyopadhyay of Indore Gharana (the most authoritative disciple of the Great Ustad Ameer Khan). She was initiated into music at the age of five by her paternal uncle, an earnest music admirer and singer Sri Subodh Chatterjee. She has received priced musical advices from great musicians like, Ustad Keramattulla Khan, Ustad Allarakha Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit V.G.Jog, Pandit Kishen Maharaj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, to name a few. 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 Prof. 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 Ghulam Ali 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 three decades 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, Christian Ivan, Bukhard Kehring, Peter Michael Hamel, Judy Niemack, Ramesh Weeretunga, Abbos Kossimov, Mohamed Reza and many others from Europe, America, Middle East and so on. Her bands namely In-diva jazz (Indo-jazz band) and Raag Rangeela (Hindustani and Carnatic jugalbandi band) has earned big names in the collaborative music era.
Among her several national and international albums, KHAYAL(2012) from SAREGAMA India limited was nominated under the best Indian classical vocal album by the Global Indian Music Awards (GIMA) in 2013. Her song "Prayer" has been featured in the album “The Greatest Songs Ever: India”(2007) by Petrol. Her albums namely "Shruti"(2002),"Bhakti"(2005), "Puja"(2008), "Sangita"(2004) and "Double sunrise over Neptune"(2008) are very famous world premier releases to receive highly appreciative reviews in the world famous music journals like "Wire", "All about jazz" and so on. Her fusion numbers "Mother Earth" and "Morning Mantra" has reached the top ten chart of world music and world jazz music in 1998 and 2008 respectively. She is the first Indian vocalist to perform at World Women Vocalists Festival Geneva, 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), World Women Vocalists Festival Geneva (ADEM), XXII International Jean Gebser Symposium Hamburg and LA VOCE festival Parma.
Sangeeta has also pioneered master classes in various prestigious institution like, IIMC - Cini Foundation Venice, 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.
She is the founder of the SANGEET AMRITAM, an institution dedicated to the promotion of good music and musical crossover.
