KOLKATA: The Sabarna Sangeet Sammelan, a classical music festival organised by the members of the Sabarna Ray Chaudhuri family of Kolkata, concluded successfully on Sunday after three days of stunning performances.
Featuring classical music, dance, and immersive table-sarod jugalbandi, this event remains a highly anticipated highlight of the city’s cultural calendar.
In the ninth edition of this year’s Sabarna Sangeet Sammelan, Ranjan Sen, First Secretary (Press) Bangladesh Deputy High commission, Kolkata, and Satyam Roychowdhury, Founder and MD of Techno India Group and Chancellor Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata graced the programme as the chief guests. On the first day, singer Goutam Roy Choudhury, accompanied by Pandit Samar Ghosh on tabla, delighted the audience with their performance. Dancer Mohul Mukherjee also impressed everyone with her Bharatnatyam performance.
On Saturday, the second day of the event, the evening commenced with a soulful performance by singer Piu Mukherjee. However, it was the mesmerising sarod-tabla jugalbandi featuring Pandit Debojyoti Bose and Pandit Tanmoy Bose that truly left a lasting impression. Tanmay Ray Chaudhuri, one of the descendants of the Sabarna Roy Chaudhuri family and convener of the organising committee, Sabarna Sangeet Sammelan, said, “It was a tremendous success. In fact, many audience members were so captivated by the jugalbandi that they listened to it standing.”
An IPS officer, Tanmay also shared that the family’s age-old tradition of the classical music festival began in 1610 in Barisha by Lakshmikanta Ray Majumdar Chaudhuri. Although the last documented evidence dates back to 1925, despite facing interruptions and challenges over the years, the current generation has revived and continued the event.
On the third and final day, i.e. Sunday, tabla virtuoso Pandit Kumar Bose’s performance stole the show. Despite the event typically being organised in February and March, this year, the Sabarna Ray Chaudhuri family chose to hold it in April due to board exams.