Arnab Chakrabarty is a Hindustani classical music

Hindustani classical music

Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...

ian and sarod

Sarod

The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...

 player.

Early life and education

Arnab Chakrabarty grew up in Mumbai, where his father was a professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology. His tutelage commenced under the Sarod exponent Brij Narayan

Brij Narayan

Brij Narayan is an Indian classical musician who plays the string instrument sarod. Narayan was born in the Indian state Rajasthan and began to study sarod from a young age under his father Ram Narayan and other teachers. He won the All India Radio instrumentalist competition in 1967 and...

, disciple of his father the Sarangi

Sarangi

The Sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument of India which is originated from Rajasthani folk instruments. It plays an important role in India's Hindustani classical music tradition...

 maestro Pandit Ram Narayan

Ram Narayan

Ram Narayan , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician who popularized the bowed instrument sarangi as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music and became the first internationally successful sarangi player....

 and also Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan , often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad , was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod...

 of the Seniya Maihar Gharana

Maihar gharana

The Maihar gharana is a gharana or school of Hindustani or North Indian classical music formed principally by the versatile genius and sarod maestro Ustad Allaudin Khan in Maihar in the Madhya Pradesh state of India....

. Arnab subsequently trained under Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta

Buddhadev Das Gupta

Buddhadev Das Gupta is an Indian classical musician who plays the sarod. Das Gupta resides in Kolkata, India. He is one of the artists featured in Nimbus Records's The Raga Guide...

 of the Shahjahanpur Gharana.

At the age of 18 Arnab received a Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

 scholarship, which led to a dual degree in ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology

Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...

 and international relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

 from Hampshire College

Hampshire College

Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...

 in 2002. This experience exposed him to other traditions of music, and led him to experiment with new ideas in sarod construction and design, as well as musical idioms.

Subsequent Tutelage and Influences

Arnab's early training followed the Maihar and Shahjahanpur schools, which both derived from the Senia

Senia

Senia may refer to:* Count of Senia, a title of Maltese nobility* Es Sénia, a commune in Algeria...

 idiom founded by the legendary Mian Tansen

Tansen

Mia Tansen is considered among the greatest composer-musicians in Hindustani classical music. He was an extraordinarily gifted vocalist, known for a large number of compositions, and also an instrumentalist who popularized and improved the rabab .He was among the Navaratnas at the court of the...

. However, he has long been influenced by the vocalism-inspired style of the Etawah Gharana, which was taken to new heights by Ustad Vilayat Khan

Vilayat Khan

Ustad Vilayat Khan was one of India's well known sitar maestros, born in Gauripur in Mymensingh, Bengal...

. Arnab continues an extended period of part-tutelage part-collaboration with Vinayak Chittar of this Gharana. He has also studied with a number of vocalists of the Agra and Gwalior Gharanas, notably Pandit Yeshwantbua Joshi.

Arnab had reverted to training under a master of the Shahjahanpur Gharana, Prof Kalyan Mukherjea

Kalyan Mukherjea

Kalyan Kumar Mukherjea was an authority on Indian classical music, particularly the Senia Shahjahanpur Gharana of Sarod. He was also a mathematician.-Early life:...

, until Mukherjea's death in March 2010.

Performative career

Arnab has had several significant concerts. He made his solo debut in 1994, and won the National Collegiate Competition for Music and Dance three years in a row between 1995 and 1997. In 1999 he performed before Dr Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

, then the United Nations Secretary General, a memorial programme for the Pakistani peace activist Eqbal Ahmed. Notable performances at home include recitals at the IMG-Britannia Young Masters’ Festival, Mumbai; the Uttarpara Music Conference, Kolkata; and concerts at the Nehru Centre and the National Centre for the Performing Arts.