Based in Washington DC, Soumya is an established Sarod player who proudly carries the mantle of the Shahjahanpur Gharana, one of the oldest surviving lineages in instrumental music in northern India.

He took up the Sarod at an early age under the guidance of Pt. Samarendra Nath Sikdar, a disciple of the legendary Sarod maestro, Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra.  The playing style of this gharana, has a unique blend of the Rababiya (derived from the Rabab) and Gayaki (derived from Hindustani vocal music) styles.

Soumya blossomed as a young artist on All India Radio Calcutta between 1990 and 1995. During a brief stint in Australia for a couple of years in the nineties while pursuing his MBA, he truly established himself as a mature instrumentalist, and also began to collaborate with other forms of world music. 

For nearly two decades, Soumya has been performing throughout the US, as well as performing in Indian and in Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.   In the U.S., he has performed in major cities such as Cleveland, New York, Princeton, Seattle, and his home town of Washington DC, drawing packed audiences and earning rave reviews.  In addition to pure Hindustani he continues to work with other music genres such Classical Carnatic (south Indian), Ghazal, Rabindrasangeet (Tagore songs), as well as western classical, flamenco, jazz and blues and western African music. His concert and interview at the Library of Congress in 2016 has gone into the archives of this prestigious institution.  For India’s Independence Day celebration in 2015 he performed a Hindustani-Carnatic Jugalbandi at the Embassy of India in Washington DC.  He has performed at the prestigious Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata in 2019 and 2020.  In 2020, he collaborated with the U.S. Navy Band in a musical production based on A.R. Rehman’s “Yeh Jo Des Hai”.  He has recently been associated with the American University in Washington DC on teaching Hindusthani classical music as part of ethnomusicology and audio technology curriculums.

Despite having a regular career in banking and risk management, Soumya’s maintains a professional performing and teaching career in music and continues to push forward in exploring new frontiers and challenges.

Soumya’s website: http://sarodia.com/generation/soumya-chakraverty/

Media Clips

Soumya continues to perform traditional Hindusthani classical music as well as collaborate with other genres of music.  A number of his concert clips can be found on YouTube.  Some samples are included below.

1. Concert at the US Library of Congress: https://youtu.be/5aGVhi9OyGA
2. Rhythm of Freedom Concert at the Embassy of India in Washington DC: https://youtu.be/nS2NOUJtqsc
3. Concert at the Washington Folk Festival 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TRTBsxLX9k
4. Concert in Brisbane, Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBnEDAAx5ng

Debu Nayak – Tabla

Debapriya Nayak (Debu) was born in West Bengal, India, and began learning tabla at the age of three from his grandfather, Chaudhury Kausalya Nandan, who was an accomplished pakhawaj and tabla player of the Punjab Gharana. Later, Debu became a disciple of Pt. Radhakanta Nandi of the Benaras Gharana. In 1981, Debu came to the US to pursue higher studies and continued his tabla taalim from Maestros like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Anindo Chattergee and currently under Pandit Samir Chatterjee of the Farrukkhabad Gharana. 

Debu is an accomplished soloist and accompanist. He has performed with renowned artists like Pt. Vinayak Torvi, Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar, Habib Wali Mohammad, Asif Ali Khan, Shahanaz Begum, Gaurav Mazumdar, Partha Bose, Mitali Banerjee-Bhawmik, Tulika Ghosh and many others.

His tabla was featured in a collaborative effort of Indian Classical Music and Jazz. The CD, called PROBE, is currently available under ‘World Music’ at the Sackler Gallery Bookstore in the Smithsonian. He along with the members of PROBE have also performed at the Smithsonian Institution.  Along with Soumya Chakraverty, he also performed and gave an interview for the archives of the US Library of Congress in 2016.

He is the director of the Washington DC Chapter of Chhandayan, a tabla school dedicated to the promotion of tabla and Indian Classical Music in the Washington DC metro area.  

Debu’s website:  www.tablaguy.com