Gifted Tabla Player Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri To Perform Solo At the 2024 LearnQuest Music Festival

By Sanket Acharya

As many readers already know, the LearnQuest Academy of Music is a non-profit educational institution located in the Boston area that has been instrumental in bringing scintillating performances by Indian artists to New England since 2006. Now in its 16^th year, the LearnQuest Music Festival, to be held during March and April this year, is sure to attract a wide array of music and dance lovers from the area.

This year, the audience will have a special treat in being able to listen to Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, a highly respected and world-famous Tabla player known for his captivating solo performances. Swapanji’s distinctive style and command over the instrument was initiated at an early age of five, through intensive training with his Guru, the late Pandit Santosh Krishna Biswas of Lucknow Gharana. Spanning an impressive career of over seven decades, Swapanji has been a terrific soloist, a sensitive and elegant accompanist to the likes of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, as well as a mentor to students at the Ali Akbar College of Music in California where he is the Director of Percussion.

Given his unique contributions to the world of Indian music and Tabla, it is no surprise that Swapanji has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including the prestigious Padma Shree, Sangeet Natak Academy Award, and the American Academy of Artists Award, to name only a few. His performances have taken him around the globe and two of his records, Legacy (1997) and Passing on the Tradition (1998) were also nominated for the Grammy Awards.

Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri’s Tabla solo performance will be part of the five-day LearnQuest Music Festival that will take place during March 29-31 and April 13-14, 2024 at Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts. The festival also features several other highly regarded artists including Roopak Kulkarni (Flute), Kushal Das (Sitar), TM Krishna (Vocal), Lalgudi GJR Krishnan (Violin), and many more.

For full details and tickets, please visit www.learnquest.org.

 About the Author:

Sanket Acharya is a disciple of Ustad Allarakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain and has performed several tabla concerts internationally collaborating with leading artists. He is a scientist by training and received his PhD in Immunology from Harvard University. Professionally, Sanket works in the biotechnology industry supporting development of advanced therapies. He lives with his family in the Boston area.

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