BOSTON—Earning a living by being a musician can be challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic as all events, concerts and performances have been canceled. It does not matter whether you are a Grammy winner or local singer in your community, it is a tough time for professional musicians.
In an exclusive video interview in Chai With Manju’s Covid Diaries series, Grammy winner Tabla Maestro Sandeep Das talks about coping with COVID times and teaching music virtually, followed by a mesmerizing performance by his students.
To watch the full interview, please click here or on the image below.
Mr. Das also discusses the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on musicians and their livelihood in this special series of Chai with Manju.
In 2017, Mr. Das’s collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble “Sing Me Home” won the Grammy in the Best World Music Album category. Das, who had been nominated for Grammy twice before, has played tabla with the likes of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar, and has been associated with legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble since 2000.
Having first learned tabla playing in Patna, India, at an early age and later being in the tutelage of Pandit Kishan Maharaj from Benares, Mr. Das has now left a mark on the Indian classical music scene, and more importantly in the area of collaboration between Indian and Western music genres.
In 2009, Mr. Das founded Harmony and Universality through Music, known as HUM, which provides a common platform in India for artists of the highest caliber from across the world to share their music, tradition and heritage and facilitate an interaction among them.
Mr. Das, who settled in Boston about seven years ago, teaches students table at his home and online, and maintains strong connection with his roots in India. He is considered one of the leading tabla players in the world today. He has carved out a niche for himself throughout the musical world.
Mr. Das went to school at St. Xavier’s Patna and then did his intermediate from Patna College, Patna University. Further education took him to Banaras Hindu University and he is a Gold Medalist in English Literature. At the age of sixteen, he had already performed with Ravi Shankar and subsequently with all the stars of Indian music. He was three times the all India drumming champion and was the youngest drummer ever to be graded by All-India radio.
