Abhisek Lahiri (IND)

SamVaad is a project by sarod player Shri Abhisek Lahiri, in which three musicians of different orientations – besides him singer Somdatta Chatterjee and tablas-sitar player Ishaan Ghosh – come together to present a unified concept of traditional Indian instrumental and vocal music. SamVaad's live concert will feature solo, duo and trio performances. The Masters of Indian Classical Music series, edited by Szabolcs Tóth and András Halmos, which ran at Trafo for many years, continues in the House of Music. This performance is the first piece of the series here. 

Prior to the concert, from 19:00 to 19:30, a documentary film about Baba Allauddin Khan will connect to the event, about the founding father of the Maihar Gharana music school, where one of the students was Ravi Shankar. 

Shri Abhisek Lahiri 
Abhisek Lahiri is one of the most respected sarod artists in India, who won many awards even at a young age (sarod is one of the ancient plucked instruments of North Indian music). Abhisek Lahiri inherited a high level of instrumental playing skills on his father's side, while his father and early master, Pandit Alok Lahiri, were also prominent performers of sarod. And although he was influenced by other sarod schools and masters (he was apprenticed by several grandmasters, a rare honor in India), Abhisek Lahiri created his own unique style and poetic musical language, which earned him countless accolades around the world. Abhisek’s albums Sparkling Sarod and Mood of Puriya Kalyan were nominated for Best Album at the Global Indian Music Awards in 2010 and 2014, respectively, and he has played with legends of his country such as Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivkumar Sharma, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Rashid Khan – as well as at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics in Greece and with Indian-born wind instrumentalist Deepak Ram, among many others. 

Somdatta Chatterjee 

One of Abhisek Lahiri's partners in the SamVaad project is singer Somdatta Chatterjee, who was also born into a musical family, and was first trained by his father, Shri Subhasish Chatterjee. In addition to the parallel, she also has family ties to Abhisek Lahiri, as the two performers are husband and wife and have been giving concerts together for a long time. Somdatta Chatterjee practices the Agra Gharana tradition and style of Hindustani classical vocal music – she also studied with the renowned singer and veteran guru of Agra Gharana, Vidushi Subhra Guha. 

Ishaan Ghosh 

Abhisek Lahiri's other partner in the SamVaad project is Ishaan Ghosh, who plays both tabla and sitar, outstanding as India's leading young tabla player, who, like the other two members of the trio, is a prominent musician with a famous father, tabla and sitar master Pandit Nayan Ghosh. Over the years, he has gained considerable recognition as a full-fledged soloist and fellow artist.