Indian Harmonica Day Celebration - 2016

Sourav Chowdhury's harmonica shades.

Sourav Chowdhury is one of the promising young experimentalist of Harmonica whose tonality has already been widely appreciated and accepted on a global scale. Sourav's own musical voayage started at a very young age of five when he was introduced to Farrukhabad Gharana of Tabla playing by his father Shri Chandan Chowdhury, a student of the aforementioned Gharana. Sourav was introduced to the world of Harmonica at the age of eight by his maternal uncle Shri. Bhaskar Chowdhury who happens to be one of the closest disciple of the Indian Harmonica Legend Late Shri Milon Gupta. Shri. Bhaskar Chowdhury is presently an empanelled artist with the All India Radio. Sourav's initial days of Harmonica training involved hours of practice sessions with chromatic Harmonica under the supervision of his uncle. Sourav recalls those magical hours when his uncle used to explain the subtle nuances of harmonica playing and striking a pefect poise between technique and expression. Sourav considers himself immensely fortunate that he grew up listening to recorded-performances of legends like Larry Adler, Jerry Murad,Charlie-mcCoy,Tommy Reily and so on.These were some of the precious possessions of his uncle, which he received as gift from Lt.Milon Gupta.

Sourav gets nostalgic about those days when he used to wake up in the morning listening to his mother rendering raga 'nat-bhairavi' and after whole day of hectic school and study schedule going to bed with Larry Adler’s harmonica creating the night's esoteric musical scene. In this connection it is apt mentioning that his mother Smt. Munmun Chowdhury is an exponent of Rampur-Sahaswan gharana and is highly influencial in shaping Sourav's way of perceiving music.

Sourav gave his first public Harmonica performance at the age of ten. Since then he has been featured in many prestigious cultural gatherings in Kolkata and places outside coupled with some televison appearances. With time Sourav has grown from a performer of Harmonica to an innovator of the instrument. Over the last few years he is putting his thoughts on a World-music format, which is itself a vast subject to explore.

Presently a doctoral researcher at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, Sourav strikes a perfect balance between his scientific quests and musical explorations. With lot of film, television and audio productions in pipeline Sourav personally feels he is now in his second phase of learning where he is scouring in the realms of World Music. His first audio project “Shades of Tagore” is slated for a gala launch latter this year. Shades of Tagore is a joint venture of Sourav and elite music director Tunai Debashish Ganguly and is framed on the format of World music. Sourav's endeavour in the World Music was acknowledged by eminent Harmonica player Jean Laber when he cited Sourav in the monthly magazine of Harmonica France as the symbol of World Music years back in 2007. Sourav’s tonality has been appreciated by musical giants like JJ Milteau, Yanni, Jia-yi-He and so on.

Recently he is busy with film and album assignments and is trying to strike a balance between recording sessions and own studies with Chromatic, Diatonic and Orchestral Harmonica.