Sitar by Maestro Aloke Dasgupta - Sitar Players
Sitar by Maestro Aloke Dasgupta is an accomplished sitar player among a small handful of North American practitioners in the ancient arts of North Indian Classical music.

Aloke Dasgupta is among the most outstanding and original sitar players in the North Indian Classical style. With a maturity of style and composition all his own, he draws the memory back nostalgically to the past greats of sitar, while at the same time revealing an awareness of contemporary, international movements, such as jazz, new age and world music. though grounded in the maihar gharana of Allauddin Khan, Aloke has rapidly assimilated phrasing and tonality from other gharanas, to pioneer a versatile originality, which has carved for him a place for himself. Indeed, Aloke has come a long way since beginning his musical training under his uncle at the age of eleven.

Erudite and articulate, with a master's degree in Ethnomusicology from San Diego State University, Aloke made his debut in 1981, at the New York Folk Festival, where he was introduced by composer-performer David Amram. Since then, it has been a steady stream of success, with acclaimed world-wide concerts in Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, Berlin, Frankfort, and numerous other cities in Europe, India and the United States, including the Lincoln Center for Arts and Performance in New York. He has played on NBC and CBS television and his performances have been broadcast live in Los Angeles (KPFK) and San Francisco (KLF) radio stations. As a composer of world music, he teamed up with Linda J. Macy (Johnson), to write a sitar-concertino which was used in a performance with San Diego State University Symphony.

He has composed several Indian-American jazz selections for the album Usha, and has published a CD of short raga-based pieces, titled "Caress of the Sitar". In 1995, Aloke was presented with the pretigious SOPAN award in Calcutta, instituted by leading intellectuals of Bengal, for creative excellence in music. Today, Aloke is a much sought after performer world-wide and, along with his wife, classical vocalist Sanjukta, runs the Raga Ranjani School of Music in Los Angeles area.

Aloke has won the hearts of critics and discerning audiences worldwide. Indeed if there is one thing that remains strongly etched in the memory after Aloke?s performance, it is the soft touch, the subtle sweetness of his notes, that are reminiscent of the haunting mystical sequences of the late master, Nikhil Banerjee. In fact, Aloke believes that Nikhil Banerjee was a mystic who attained to siddhi, spiritual perfection, through the practice of music, nada-vidya, and Aloke aspires to the same goal. It is this, more than anything else, that makes a performance by Aloke Dasgupta specially note worthy and leaves its stamp of high seriousness underneath the good humored playful banter of his life and his work.

Aloke recently played in Hollywood Bowl ( sold out tickets) for 40th year celebration of Sergent Peeper album and Beatles with Cheap Trick and LA Philharmonic. Aloke also played for the multi million dollar album Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt. Aloke also played for the movie Outsource, Ocean of Pearl and a TV commercial for Twix.

Testimonials

His alap, jod and jhala in the evening raga Marva was neat and well constructed. A lot of rhythmic variations in the teen tal gats made his concert interesting. - The Telegraph

Mr. Dasgupta is a musician of brilliant technique, great imagination, and (at times) an engaging playfulness. - San Diego READER

Performer tries to give Hindustani music life. - The Arizona Republic

The strokes were bold and clear both in tan and jhala and had that laya and aesthetic awareness which make serious sincere music. - The Asian Age

Next Spring 2010 An Unprecedented "Sitar and Shenai Duet" and Blue Train In Mumbai ( A sextet Sitar Ensemble with Blue Raga, Bollywod Tune and Beatles Song) will be available
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