The Cello and the Tabla

Following the success of last year’s tour, James Barralet (cello) and Sankar Chowdhury (tabla) will be offering their programme of music for cello and tabla again next year.

Bhajans by Bhimsen Joshi and folk tunes by Rabindranath Tagore are interspersed with pieces by western composers inspired by Indian culture which combine elements of fusion, jazz and chant. Readings of Tagore poems set the atmosphere for the pieces.

Performances next year begin in March with Music in the Round in Sheffield and include St George’s Bristol. Sankar and James are available from March, throughout the summer, until the end of August.

Programme:
Rabindranath Tagore

Hridoy Amar Prokash Holo (solo cello)
John Mayer

Ragamala 3 (solo cello)
John Schlenck

Sri Mata (bhajan variations)
Bhimsen Joshi

Bhajan - Chalo Ri Murali Suniye

John Mayer

Ragamala 6 (solo cello)

Tabla solo
Bhimsen Joshi

Bhajan - Chaturbhuj Jhoolat Shyam Hindore
Rabindranath Tagore

The Boatman Song (Sample

Full programme details HERE

Children’s concerts and workshops also form part of this project. HERE is a review from a 10 year old last year.

James and Sankar first played together in Basel, Switzerland, on the encouragement of James's Indian music professor, the sarod maestro Ken Zuckerman. Sankar visits Basel regularly to teach and give masterclasses and concerts. Having very much enjoyed playing together, they decided to continue on a long term basis as a cello and tabla duo. Their first public concerts in the UK last year, including at the Newbury Spring Festival and at the Yorke Trust in Norfolk, were met with overwhelming enthusiasm.

We have a demo DVD and would be happy to send one to you if this might be helpful.
James Barralet

As joint winner of the 2007 Abstract Securities Landor Records competition, cellist James Barralet will shortly be recording his debut CD. He won the 2003 Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis Scholarship and many other awards while studying with Hannah Roberts at the RNCM and Thomas Demenga in Basel. He studied tabla and Hindustani classical music during a six month teaching visit to the Mathieson Music School in Kolkata in 1998 and continued his studies with Ken Zuckerman at the Ali Akbar College of Music in Basel. Contemporary music is also important for James and he has premiered several new works

Sankar Chowdhury

Shankar Prasad Chowdhury, a disciple of tabla maestro Swapan Chaudhuri, is one of the prominent tabla artists of India. Born in 1959, Shankar began studying tabla with the late Tarapada Chatterjee of Farukabad Gharana and then with Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri of Lucknow Gharana. Sankar holds a bachelor's degree in science from the University of Calcutta and also a master's degree in music from the prestigious music academy Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad, India. Shankar Chawdhury is currently a lecturer in tabla in the department of instrumental music, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and a regular visitor to the Ali Akbar school of Music in Basel where he gives concerts and masterclasses. He is also a regular broadcaster over All India Radio and Indian television.