My Compelling Story

Manik Banerjee is a professional sarod player based out of the Pink City of India, Jaipur. He plays Hindustani classical music on the sarod in the style of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. At present, Manik teaches sarod at Banasthali University, Jaipur, where he had been settled for many years as a teacher and performer. He has presented many LIVE concerts as well as performed for Doordarshan and All India Radio. Born in 1952, Manik started learning music at a very young age in the tradition of the Shahjahanpur Gharana from his father, the late Durgadas Banerjee, who was the department head for sitar and sarod at Gandhi Sangeet Vidyalaya in Kanpur. He started his training on sitar, sarod and vocal music, but soon started focusing on the sarod primarily. Manik first heard Ali Akbar Khan at the age of 11 years, and was immediately entranced by his music and his style of playing the sarod. He met Khan-sahib himself in 1964 on one of Ali Akbar's visits to Kanpur, and on learning of Manik’s deep interest in his style of music, Ali Akbar Khan blessed him with all his heart and suggested that he learn from him in his school in Kolkata. Unfortunately, Manik was unable to follow up on Khan-sahib's suggestion because his parents did not give him permission to travel so far away from home at such a young age. Even so, encouraged by Ali Akbar Khan's blessing, Manik persisted in inculcating Khan-sahib's style into his own music, alongside his traditional training from his own father. He did learn Ali Akbar's style more formally some years later from his son, Dhyanesh Khan, and currently Manik’s music continues to be informed by Ali Akbar Khan's music, while incorporating elements of vocal music according his own conception of the raagas. Performances:   National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Lucknow 2009 Lucknow Festival, Nov 2007 Musical evenings of National and Internaional Conferences at IIT Kanpur, 1994–1995 Invited to perform at the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan Memorial Society Conference, Lucknow, 1989 Selected to perform with a Sangeet Natak Academy tour of South India, 1989 Participated in Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy workshop on accompaniment of the duggi with shehnai and sarod, Lucknow, 1988