Asit Kumar Banerjee Biography 
Asit Kumar Banerjee is a rudra Veena player and musician from India. He is one of the oldest surviving artists of rudra Veena (also known as ‘been’ in early tradition), and a disciple of legendary Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. He retired as head of the Department of Instrumental Music in The Anand Foundation, Punjab, where he served as a music teacher for many decades. Now also he is active with his Rudra Veena concerts in different parts of India and abroad. He has also composed music for two documentary films. His wife Arati Banerjee is also a rudra Veena player. Tansen Sangeet Vidyapith of Gwalior honoured him with the title, Pramukh Acharya.
Asit Kumar Banerjee started off with tabla during his younger years, where he learnt under V.C. Ambedkar of Benares gharana and Amir Hussain Khan of Mumbai. Later he switched over to string instruments and took lessons from Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. He learnt Sitar, Surbahar and rudra veena from his renowned guru, and also took lessons from Fariuddin Dagar, of Dagar Gharana. Though he has learnt different forms of music under different traditions and gurus, he loves dhrupad style most.
In the second half of 1980s, he was quite regular on Doordarshan with his performances. He has given many performances between 1986 and 1989 along with his students for Doordarshan, the only TV channel available then. He also performed on radio. Through his demonstrations on both these media, he tried to popularize this dying art among music lovers. In 2003 he conducted a tour to some European countries under the sponsorship of I.C.C.R. Currently Banerjee is one of the foremost Rudra-Veena maestros of India.
Published: October 08, 2018
Updated: October 08, 2018
