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News |  30 Mar 2018 18:37 |  By RnMTeam

Being part of a rich lineage has given me a sense of identity and strong base: Ishaan Ghosh

MUMBAI: All of 18, Ishaan Ghosh is certainly a name to reckon with. Born into an illustrious Ghosh family, it wasn’t a surprise that Ishaan showed early signs of being musically inclined and gave his first brief tabla solo when he was only 2 years and 10 months old.

“Honestly, I do not remember, how and when I was initiated in the world of music. This is due to being born in a family of musicians and being in a musical atmosphere since the very beginning. My parents often recollect incidents from my early childhood when I showed strong signs of being musically and rhythmically inclined. One of them was my first brief tabla solo performance which I gave at my play school event.”

Son and disciple of tabla virtuoso Pandit Nayan Ghosh, Ishaan feels blessed to be under this aegis, “Well, first of all I am extremely fortunate to have been born in this family of such legendary musicians who have been landmark figures in the field of Indian music.”

The biggest advantage he observes is, “One of the many advantages are that it has enabled me to continuously gain and acquire knowledge and information about various aspects in music and otherwise. Also, to be born and be a part of this rich lineage has given me a tremendous sense of identity and a strong base and hopefully I will be able to build on that. At the same time, there is a certain sense of responsibility in me.”

To be born and brought up in an environment which is rooted in traditions and to balance in the tech-savvy current generation might sound like a task for many, but the child prodigy sees the positive side too, “Being in this generation seems to be very advantageous as, due to technological advancements, and the world becoming smaller, there are innumerable musical as well as other avenues and ideas that are available very easily to an artiste and one can incorporate all these factors and create his or her own musical personality. Therefore, I try my best to express my music, keeping in mind the rich traditional heritage, but by giving it a contemporary idiom.”

Pandit Nayan Ghosh, is not only one of the most well-known tabla players in India, but also a noted sitar player, possibly the only artiste to have mastered both the instruments with equal eloquence. Following his footsteps, Ishaan too can play sitar, but he confirms his focus on tabla, “I was fully inclined towards the tabla since my childhood and I was focused on that. At the same time, I did learn sitar, of course due to my father being one of the few musical geniuses and the only artiste with equal command on both sitar and tabla.”

He continues reminiscing, “A peculiar trait of mine in my childhood was that I would continuously watch videos of my father’s live concerts, be it sitar or table. Then I would memorise the entire rendition and emulate it in exactly the same manner without knowing that I was playing a raga or tabla composition. Those were compositions to be played after many decades of learning and performing.”

Ishaan thanks his stars to have a father and guru like Pandit Nayan Ghosh, “As I have said earlier, I am much more than fortunate to have a father like him who is also my guru, guide and my closest friend. I am also lucky enough that I began performing with him at a very early age. He has always given me my musical space which enabled me to not get over-awed by his presence and even before that, I would always sit on the stage beside him at every concert of his, just to observe him. Even now, after having performed with him for more than a decade, I am always zapped watching him in action and especially with his vast musical repertoire, his ‘nikaas’ (impeccable execution), rich tonality, balancing of the weight of two hands and above all, his phenomenal aura and engulfing stage presence, which he has developed after a huge experience of learning, assimilating, performing and enthralling.”

While the whole world is mired with the word “Nepotism”, very rarely it is given a thought what a mountain it is to climb, when you have a father who has completed 50 years of extensively performing, both in India and across the globe. On how it is to create your own identity, Ishaan expresses, “I strongly believe that every artiste has his or her own individual approach and idiom but this is possible only after intensive training and proper ‘riyaz’ (practice) and ‘nistha’ (discipline). Most of the times, it is never a conscious effort on the part of an artiste to create his own identity because it is a continuous process which the artiste himself does not realise. Personally, even I have never consciously worked towards making my own identity because I am still in the process of getting ‘taleem’ and have a long way to go ahead. However, while performing, I often feel that there are certain elements which are being discovered unknowingly and I take this as an indication that probably I will be able to create my own musical approach someday.”

The father-son duo is all set to mesmerize the audience on 7 April 2018 at the National Center for the Performing Arts, with their performance as a part of Saaz-E-Bahar festival.

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