Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, on the SITAR

Partha Sarathi Chatterjee is one of the leading sitarists of his generation who comes from one of the legendary musical lineages of Kolkata (Calcutta, India). He divides his time between Kolkata and New Jersey where he is a visiting faculty at TaalSadhana School of Indian Classical Music.

Partha Sarathi Chatterjee devotes his six months in NJ to a circuit of invited musical performances all across the USA, while he performs actively in India during the Winter music festivals. He is also a much sought after star performer in the US, Europe and India.

Partha Sarathi Chatterjee has developed a unique style on the sitar, exemplified by evocative fluidity of his 4-scale alaap (the vocal gayaki ang), balanced in equal parts with a supreme command of a contrasting vibrant staccato and rhythmic overtures. Through his tutelage in the varied styles of classical music of India (Senia-Maihar and Imdadkhani) and influences of the Kasur-Patiyala style, Partha Sarathi Chatterjee has melded a unique aesthetic that is seldom seen in the new exponents of sitar today.

While the roots of Partha Sarathi Chatterjee’s renditions are classical, he artfully presents these as each muted movement is soulfully decorated with delicately played phrases and deep resonance, before he switches to more staccato compositions that build up toward a high pace, scintillating crescendo. Partha Sarathi Chatterjee’s music is crosses boundaries and his audiences have been touched regardless of their geographic, cultural or religious backgrounds. As a performer, Partha Sarathi Chatterjee is being increasingly recognized as an artiste par excellence. In addition, as a skillful educator, Partha Sarathi Chatterjee has demonstrated great flair for impressing both the connoisseurs of music and the novice.

Partha’s musical strengths have been grounded in his all rounded disciplined talim (education), relentless riyaz (practice), and his constant efforts to improve, evolve and perfect his music.

For 24 years, Partha was the pre-eminent disciple of Pandit Indranil Bhattacharya, his most formative guru, a doyen of the Senia-Maihar Gharana and direct descendant and the last in-house disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb. Pandit Bhattacharya shares this honor with other illustrious disciples of the cohort such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and Annapurna Devi.

Partha Sarathi has performed in many prestigious music festivals and concerts all over the world including the Dover Lane Festival, The Salt Lake Music Conference in Kolkata, The Ghent Festival at Belgium Peiping Festival, Classical Music Series at Rabindra Natyagruha, Mumbai; Park Plaza Concert in Muscat, Oman; and Amir Khan Memorial Concert in New Delhi in USA.

Achievements and Awards

A few of the awards received by Partha Sarathi Chatterjee include:

• National Scholarship from Govt. of India
• Best Instrumentalist Award, Kolkata (1989)
• Young Talents Award as the Best Talented Musician of the Year in all categories, Kolkata (1998)
• Jadu Bhatt Award Kolkata 2001
• Naad-Upasak title by Taan Tarang Sangeet Sabha, Delhi (2016)