LOS ANGELES: SPIC-MACKAY is organizing a free santoor-concert by Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya at Moore Hall, UCLA on May 18. He will be accompanied by Abhishek Basu on tabla. Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya is an accomplished Santoor artist who is the only Santoor player of the famous Maihar school of Hindustani Music.
His father, Pandit Robi Bhattacharya was his first teacher. He then became a disciple of Pundit Dulal Roy, a well-known music teacher from Kolkata. In 1982, Tarun met Pandit Ravi Shankar and became his student. This association continues even today, and Pandit Ravi Shankar's influence on Tarun's music is unmistakable.
Tarun is very innovative and he has also made a number of modifications in the instrument and his style reflects those changes. For example, he can play "meends" in the lower octave, which is not possible with the traditional instrument. Tarun has given numerous solo performances in India as well as in various counties of the world.
He has very successfully collaborated with several other musicians such as Ronu Majumdar and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. His efforts have been recognized and felicitated from all over the world and some of his prestigious recognitions are the "Best Critic Award" from Germany, "Excellence in World Music" from the US among others.
The santoor is a hammered dulcimer with a hundred strings, originally used as an accompaniment instrument to the Folk music of Kashmir (northern part of Indian sub-continent). The santoor finds a mention even in ancient Vedic literature as the 'Shata Tantri Veena'.
Today, the santoor occupies a prominent place in Hindustani Music as an independent instrument. Several eminent artists such as Shivkumar Sharma, Bhajan Sopori, Pooyan Nassehpoor and Tarun Bhattacharya have popularized the Santoor around the world.
SPICMACAY is a movement formed to help disseminate the best of India's and the world's classical heritage with their attendant legends, rituals, mythology and philosophy in educational institutions.
It seeks to conserve and promote an awareness of this rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry amongst the youth through focus on the classical arts, and to facilitate an awareness of their deeper and subtler values. The UCLA chapter of SPICMACAY is a non-profit voluntary student group.
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