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 BIOGRAPHY
Born into a musical family in 1957, Sanjeeb Sircar was taught singing by his
mother and encouraged in music and to play musical instruments by his father.
He took an active part during his school years at Allahabad, at school music
concerts, and picked up the mouth organ, banjo, tabla, violin and drums and
played with the school band.
During middle school he took lessons on the piano but could not continue due to
the passing away of his teacher. In the following years he started to learn the
guitar and towards the later years of his school he played guitar and joined a
group of carol-singers, played guitar with them and formed a music group,
playing semi-professionally.
Being in the cultural city of Allahabad he developed a curiosity and desire to
know more about the Sitar and started taking lessons in the same.
Upon finishing school, he studied electrical engineering for a while but a more
serious interest in music led him on the advice of elders in the family-friends
circle to join the Music Faculty of the Benares Hindu University, Varanasi, for
a full-time study of the Sitar.
His main teachers there were Dr.Raj Bhan Singh, at whose residence he initially
stayed, and Dr.K.C.Gangrade, Dean of the Music Faculty. He completed a diploma
course there.
Being in Benares also gave him a wider exposure to the gamut of North India
Classical Music and Dance, with the numerous concerts being held there, with
renowned artists like Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Vilayat
Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, and his present teacher Ustad Shujaat Khan, and
others coming to perform there. It also made it possible for him to interact
with many fine foreign musicians who had come to study Indian Music and culture
in the city of Benares.
Upon returning to Allahabad after two years he continued to study the Sitar with
the ninty year old veteran Sitar teacher Pt.Banwari Lal and continued visiting
Benares for concerts and meeting other musicians periodically. In his spare time
he also started taking lessons in tabla.
In 1978 he was invited to Italy where he played Sitar at many places and played
fusion music with other musicians using other musical instruments as the guitar,
saxophone, flute, piano, tabla, etc. and gave some private lessons.
On returning to India he continued an extensive training in Sitar with
Pt.Banwari Lal for about four years, which included practice-lesson sessions,
which often lasted up to 4 to 5 hours at a stretch, besides another 4 to 5 hours
of daily private practice, and with some other noted musicians of the city
including Pt.Shantanu Chatterji.
During this period Sanjeeb also learnt the piano and played the organ and piano
in churches, sang in choirs, completed graduation from the Kanpur University
privately in Sociology, English Literature, Indian Music; and took the degree of
Sangit Prabhakar from the Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad, in Sitar.
He then returned to Benaras, took up a part-time job performing in the evenings
at a three star hotel, while continuing his study of the Sitar, teaching
privately, playing, teaching and learning and experimenting with different forms
of music like, Fusion, Western Classical, and Jazz, with foreign musicians for
about an year.
On relocating to New Delhi in the early-eighties he worked as music teacher at a
few well-known institutions and also performed professionally and had a chance
to see a wide variety of programmes in the metropolis of New Delhi.
In 1986 he got the opportunity to travel to England where he performed and then
went to the U.S.A. where he performed and taught the Sitar at a number of places
for about an year and gained more experience and knowledge of Western Music.
On returning to New Delhi he took up a job as Music teacher at Blue Bells
International School and completed further studies in Sitar with Dr.Moni Das, a
senior student of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and took the degree of Sangit Praveen
(Post-Graduation) from the Prayag Sangit Samiti.
Being in New Delhi also gave him the opportunity to pursue his interest in
Western Music in his spare time and he joined a Western Music Christian Choir as
a tenor singer, took lessons in Western Classical and Jazz Piano, completing the
fifth grade from the Trinity College of Music, London, played piano on most
Sundays at Churches and played Pop, Rock, Jazz and popular Indian Music
professionally with well known local music groups using the Guitar, Keyboards
and Sitar and singing.
Wanting to further improve his standard of playing the Sitar, he started taking
lessons from Ustad Shujaat Khan, renowned Sitar virtuoso, and has been learning
from him since the last twelve years.
With the knowledge and experience gained over the years, Sanjeeb feels he has
yet to use it to its full potential. He is based at New Delhi presently and
works as a teacher of music and a performer.
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