Soothing Sitar

Perth was lucky enough to play host to one of India's premier sitarists this month as Purbayan Chatterjee performed to around 400 people at Murdoch University, together with local artists Sivakumar Balakrishnan on tabla and Praashekh Borkar on sarod.

Trained by his father Pundit Parthapratim Chatterjee who was a disciple of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Purbayan first picked up a sitar at the age of five at one of his father’s concerts in Switzerland.

“I think I was being naughty,” he joked. His love of music and talent grew from his father and Purbayan aims to communicate through his medium.

“It is communion between audience and the artist,” he said. “Through the music, the artist and the audience is taken on a journey that has a common thread. It is like sharing or communing over a meal together and hopefully the audience can have a realisation about themselves and what makes them happy. If the artist is successful he can help them spiritually.”

It was Purbayan’s second visit to Perth and was part of an Australasian tour that took in Melbourne, Auckland, Perth and Sydney.

The Murdoch concert was entitled Spandan. “The term refers to sound