London Ragas: Pandit Debasis Chakroborty & Ustad Akram Khan

This September our London Ragas baithak brings Pandit Debasis Chakroborty to The Tate Institute in Silvertown, with Ustad Akram Khan on tabla. Chakroborty plays Indian slide guitar in the Senia-Maihar line of Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra, the musician who brought the instrument into Hindustani classical music.

He teaches as Associate Professor of Music at Mangalayatan University and has spent more than twenty-five years on concert stages across Australia, the USA, Southeast Asia and Europe, the Melbourne International Jazz Festival among them in 2015 and 2024. The Ministry of External Affairs empanels him as an ICCR artist.

Ustad Akram Khan is the seventh generation of his family to play tabla in the Ajrada Gharana. He learned first from his great-grandfather Ustad Mohammad Shafi Khan, then from Ustad Niazu Khan, and he still teaches more than fifteen of the gharana's classic kaydas. He gave his first recital in Lucknow at seventeen, made his international debut in Norway in 1987, and has played more than eleven thousand concerts since.

Every Ragas evening asks you to pause. Indian classical tradition treats sound, Shabd, as a way to restore balance in ourselves and in the room we share. Slide guitar suits that work. One note travels into the next without a break, closer to a voice than to a fretted string, and a long alap can settle a room the way slow breathing settles the mind. Sit close and put the phone away.

If you are in London or nearby, do join us. For any access needs, contact us.

Audience Policy:

Unauthorised filming or photography is not permitted.

The use of mobile phones (including texting) is not allowed during the event. We kindly ask for your cooperation. Thank you!