Pandit Nikhil Banerjee

 

Pandit Nikhil Banerjee- A maestro of Sitar

    Pandit  Banerjee was born in Calcutta in 1931. He got  his early training in sitar from his father Jitendranath Banerjee who was an amateur sitarist. He took training also from Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khansahab, Maharaj Kumar Birendrakishore Roy Chaudhary(Senia gharana), Pandit Radhika Mohan Moitra (Senia Shahjahanpur gharana). At the age of 9, he won the top award in the All Bengal Sitar Competition and  became the youngest musician ever employed by All India Radio. Later he went to Mihar and was trained rigorously by legendary Allauddin Khan for seven years. Remembering his training here he said later "It was nothing but music all day with breaks just to eat and wash ones clothes". And finally he came to Calcutta and became a student of the sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan at the Ali Akbar College of Music. Later he became a professor also of this famous institution where once he was a student.

    Pandit Nikhil Banerjee started his tour outside India in 1954. He was awarded Padma Shri in 1968 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1974. He was also awarded one of the Indian government`s highest civilian awards, the Padmabhushan (posthumously). 

When Ustad nikhil Banerjee started his career as a sitarist, there ware some big name like Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and  Ustad Amir Khan. But with hard strive, huge effort and own style, he achieved his own place in Hindustani classical music field. His performances are particularly known for the immaculateness of his traditional style and the extreme essentialness of his spontaneous creations. Nikhil Banerjee was a rare assimilation of classical precision, glory and nobility. At the hour of his demise, he had set up an  international career. He created a raga Manomanjari of his own, mixing ideas from Kalavati and Marwa.

   

    In his two-storeyed cosy retreat named 'Nirab' or 'Silence' in Jodhpur park ,Kolkata; he spent his time either practicing sitar or reading Tagore and other books on philosophy. His last public performance was in Calcutta on Friday 24th January 1986. And we lost this great artistic genius on January 27, 1986 when he was only 55 years old.