Chayan Chakraborty

Chayan was born and brought up in a suburban town surrounded by hills, streams and forests which is also home to one of the ancient folk music genres of Bengal: Jhumur. Chayan’s family was extremely devoted to classical Indian music and thus at a very early age he got exposed to various maestros and pundits who would perform in these very private concerts.

Right from an early age he started training on the Tabla from Pandit Shankar Ghosh and continued playing it professionally for about 16 years of his career. Along these percussion instruments Chayan also took a keen interest in learning about the various ancient stringed instruments and learnt to play the Dotara and Banjo amongst others.

His travails with Indian classical as well as folk music found a match with Timir and together they formed the band Fakira to promote, preserve and create awareness of the traditional musical art forms of Bengal. Chayan has performed world-wide and is quite renowned in the international music circle having performed shows in Dubai, Wembly and Birmingham amongst others.

One of Chayan’s primary goals in life is to collect long-lost songs and then present them in front of audiences preserving their meaning and philosophy. To this end he has spent innumerable days and nights with sadhus and bauls in their akharas (abode) to understand the life lessons hidden in these songs and spread them amongst his audience.