Over the years, Chhandayan stands alone in producing a number of extraordinary students who have grown to become highly acclaimed performers and teachers in their own right. These students also serve the greater music community with their innovative and wide-ranging collaborations worldwide. Today, we have students in different parts of the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Chhandayan has created and inspired an entire generation of Indian musicians of non-Indian background who are carrying the essence of Indian music and who are now beginning to create another generation of their own. This creation of the bigger circle has grown from ripples to waves in recent times and is carried onward by the extraordinary achievements of some of our graduates who remain loyal to Chhandayan as advanced students and in heart and as mature collaborators with us. Some of the most prominent of our students are:

 

1.       Frank Colón, a world renownedLatin percussionist; also specialist in some of the most difficult African, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican percussion instruments. His talents have been recognized and applauded by artists such as Wayne Shorter, Airto Moreira, Harry Belafonte, George Clinton, Julito Collazo, Olatunji, Mickey Hart, and Milton Nascimento, among many others.

 

2.      Daniel Weiss has performed Indian Classical Music in India and the US with Ramesh Mishra, Mandira Lahiri, Subra Guha, Anoushka Shankar, Joyas Biswas and Steve Gorn. He has also performed/composed and/or recorded with David Binney, Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, Miguel Zenon, Kenny Werner, Ritchie Beirach, Ben Monder, Uri Caine, Village Vanguard Orchestra, Ravi Coltrane and many others. He has toured Europe and North America extensively with many different innovative projects and has also played in South America and Asia. Dan also contributes articles dealing with Indian rhythm and its applicability to western contexts, has published a book entitled “Tintal Drumset Transcriptions,” gives clinics all over the US as well as Canada and Europe, and enjoys a loyal base of students in the New York area.

 

3.      Shane Shanahan’s set of diverse skills and his studies of drumming traditions from around the world attracted Yo-Yo Ma when he was forming the Silk Road Ensemble, and Shane’s playing can be heard on the award-winning ensemble’s top-selling recordings. He is also a member of notable innovative groups, such as drum master Glen Velez’ Handance Ensemble and cellist Maya Beiser’s Provenance project. In addition to performing or recording extensively with many artists such as Philip Glass, Alison Krause, Shahram and Hafez Nazeri, Howard Levy and Steve Gorn, Shane has also worked extensively on Broadway, helping to create and playing the percussion book for Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change,” performing Oprah Winfrey’s “The Color Purple,” and playing percussion for “Shrek The Musical,” a book orchestrated specifically for Shane’s unique musical voice. He has also taught at the Amherst Early Music Festival and at Lincoln Center’s Meet the Artist series.

 

4.      Eric Phinney has performed with the Berkshire Opera Orchestra, St. Cecilia Orchestra, New World Symphony, New Music Consort, Ethos Percussion Group, Pulse Percussion Ensemble, Music from China and the contemporary group, EKKO. With Pulse and the New Music Consort, he has performed at music festivals in Moscow, Tokyo and Osaka. Mr. Phinney holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music. In additional to Hindustani studies, he is a student of West African drumming with Robert Levin and recently started gyil studies with Valerie Naranjo. He has recorded with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra.

 

5.      Devapriya (Debu) Nayak has performed with renowned artists like Pt. Vinayak Torvi, Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Ustad Fahimuddin Dagar, Habib Wali Mohammad, Asif Ali Khan, Shahanaz Begum, Gaurav Mazumdar, Partha Bose, Mitali Banerjee-Bhawmik, Tulika Ghosh and many others. Recently, he was featured in a collaborative effort of Indian Classical Music and Jazz called PROBE, which has also performed at the Smithsonian Institution. Debu performaned at the Kennedy Center with Gaurav Majumdar on Sitar. Director of the Washington DC Chapter of Chhandayan, Inc., Debu is a computer engineer by profession and employed by the United States Department of Education.

 

6.      Emiliano Andres Valerio has played and recorded with many Salsa and Latin jazz groups including his own group. He has acted and performed in numerous regional theater productions. From 1997 to 2000, Emiliano played percussion, guitar and keyboards, and was the musical director for the Broadway show “Tap Dogs”, touring the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. He plays Latin percussion, specifically Cuban percussion. Congas, timbales, and bongos are his specialty, although he also plays djembe, cajon, frame drums and tabla, of course.

 

7.      Dave Sharma is an internationally renowned percussionist and producer, and a member of NYC’s Sub Swara crew. Dave has worked with an extremely diverse list of artists, including international tours with Moby, Sub Swara, Delhi 2 Dublin and DJ Rekha; recording sessions with Jennifer Lopez, Taylor Dayne, and jazz pioneer Guillermo Brown; and performances with Cheap Trick, Zila Khan (daughter of Ud. Vilayat Khan) and many, many others. He was a lead percussionist on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bombay Dreams”. As an educator, Dave has taught with the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall and the Mark Morris Dance Company, and has lectured at NYU, Columbia University, and Dartmouth University.

 

8.      Bodek Janke is considered one of the most exceptional young musicians of the jazz and World Music scene, as evidenced by his award as Jazz Musician of the Year (Germany 2008). Based in New York City, Polish born Janke has been called a “cultural commuter playing between the USA, Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland and Germany.” With his playing Janke has created a distinctive new style, merging drumset with a wild variety of instruments. He plays world music with a jazz attitude and folk music with contemporary verve.

 

9.      Karsh Kale is an Indian producer, composer and musician. Kale is a prolific artist, willing to lend a hand, drum, and considerable brio to a wide range of musicians from Herbie Hancock to DJ Spooky. He has collaborated with renowned artists from such entities such as the Madras Cinematic Orchestra and also composes for film scores. Kale often creates a unique and pyrotechnical blend of Indian percussion with techno music and drum & bass.

 

10.   Michael Liptzy is Department chair, Percussion, of Queens College, New York.

 

11.    Susie Ibara, originally from the Philippines, is one of the most sought after drummers on the jazz circuit today.

 

12.   Dibyarka Chatterjee, in addition to performing with many eminent musicians in the Indian tradition, has also collaborated with groups like the Dance Theater of Harlem, Battery Dance Company and with fusion musician/composers like Salman Ahmad (Junoon), Gary Lucas, Najma Akhtar, and Douglas Cuomo, etc. He has composed music for, and performed in, two off-Broadway theatrical productions. He has also performed in many prestigious venues such as the Indian Consulate, Lincoln Center and the Asia Society in New York City, Place des Arts (Montreal), the Google Amphitheater (Palo Alto), etc. Since 2006 Dibyarka has been an integral part of Chhandayan, which he serves in multiple roles as well as teacher. He oversees many of its activities and functions including publicity, webmaster, store management, concert arrangement and event management. His many contributions to the organization are invaluable, especially for events such as the Chhandayan All-Night Concert.

 

13.   K. V. Mahabala performs regularly at concerts such as those hosted by the Lotus School of Music, East-West School of Dance and the Knitting Factory. K.V. Mahabala has developed a very spiritual approach that reflects in his music.

 

14.   Kumar Das has performed internationally from his native Bangladesh to Japan and throughout the US. He has multiple National Artist’s Gold Medal Awards in Classical Tabla music and has also taken his musicianship to Branson, Missouri, to play with Bluegrass greats, as well as to studio work with Hip Hop stars and avant-garde composers, and with contemporary Jazz musicians in prestigious clubs and Jazz festivals with his jazz group, Sudar. He was also a featured percussionist in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Broadway production of “Bombay Dreams.”

 

Other notable students of Chhandayan include:

 

James Baker, Robert Benford, Keane Bhatt, Michelle Bowman, Bill Buchen, Trevor Cohen, Stephen Celluci, Amod Dandavate, Pratik Devasthale, Samir Dey, Rick Donato, Edward Feldman, Gabriel Halberg, Sunny Jain, Aditya Koolwal, Arun Luthra, Michael Magilligan, Pradip Majumdar, Robert McCowen, Sailendra Mishra, Rutvij Pandya, Eun Hee Park, Spiro Pantazatos, Anand Prasad, Richie Paray, Rajesh Bhandari, Justin Ahyon, Dave Binney, Jordan Perlson, Anand Prasad, Jorge Remiro, Arjun Bhatt, Kyle Rowland, Debanjan Saha, Dipak Sarkar, Raouf Sarawari, Gouri (Annie) Singh, Tejas Topé, Bharathi Venkatraman, Zinnia and many more.

 

These Chhandayan students – prime examples of influence, propagation and learning – are breaking new musical ground all the time and positively affecting an entire new generation of musicians whose influence, in turn, will be far and wide, thus fulfilling Chhandayan mission in an exemplary fashion.