Sandip Burman

Sandip Burman, a native of Durgapur, India, is a disciple of the late distinguished tabla master, Pandit Shyamal Bose of Calcutta. Sandipji’s performances are marked with spontaneous innovation and tonal purity while delivering complex rhythmic patterns (tala) or melody (raga).

Sandipji is the first generation of musicians in his family and without the backing of a reputed musical heritage, it is an unyielding dedication and enthusiasm that has driven him to continually challenge himself as a student and to grow musically beyond tabla playing and into 4 different instruments: tabla, tabla tarang, sitar and voice also.

Some of his accomplishments include solo performances at the Kennedy Center, First Night Providence (Rhode Island), Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Percussive Arts Society Conference (PASIC) and Nashville Symphony.

He has shared the stage with foremost Indian musicians such as Pt. Debu Chaudhuri , Pt. Jasraj, Smt. Laxmi Shankar, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Dr. Rajeev Taranath, L. Subramaniam, Pt Chitresh Das (Indian Dance), Pt. Ravi Shankar and Western artists such as Steve Zerlin, John Wubbenhorst, Kurt Gartner, Dean Linton, Andy Narrell and Victor Wooten. They have been gracious enough to let Sandipji share such venues as the Ali Akbar Music College Festival, the Monterey World One Festival, the San Francisco Asian Museum of Art, the International Bengali Conferences in L.A. and Philadelphia, the Getty Museum (L.A.), Street Scene (San Diego), Nelson Atkins Museum (Kansas), Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Colorado), Stern Grove Festival (San Francisco) and Wolf Trap (Washington D.C.).

While exploring World Music, Jazz, Western Classical and Movie Soundtracks, Sandipji has played on albums such as Facing East, Vishnu, Outbound, Live at the Quick DVD (Grammy Award winner for Best Live Performance) and Global Fusion from Warner Brothers. Always in search of new challenges, Sandipji wrote his first Western Classical piece for wind ensemble & string quartet with Gary Hill and Jonathan Moser, as well as contributed to Danny Elfman’s soundtrack of Tim Burton’s film, Mars Attacks. He also organized and arranged a tour with Jazz legends Jack DeJohnette, Jerry Goodman, Randy Brecker, Howard Levy, Paul McCandless, Steve Smith, Dave Pietro and Paul Bollenback.

His dazzling performances, combined with his rich and eloquent playing style, have enabled him to teach master classes and perform at prestigious institutions world-wide such as CalArts, San Francisco State, Stanford, UCSD, Brown, DePaul University, Texas Tech, Penn State, Dartmouth, University of Chicago, Drummer Collective (NY), the Peabody Conservatory, etc. and in Mexico, North Africa, Israel, the Rotterdam Conservatory in Holland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.