Budhaditya Mukherjee

Who is Budhaditya Mukherjee?

Budhaditya Mukherjee is a Hindustani classical sitar and surbahar player of the Imdadkhani Gharana.

He was taught by his father Bimalendu Mukherjee from the age of 5, and started making a name for himself at a young age. In 1970, he won two national-level music competitions, and soon after was famously endorsed in glowing terms first by film maker Satyajit Ray and then South Indian veena great Balachander, who proclaimed him "sitar artist of the century." In 1975, Budhaditya became a grade A artist with All India Radio. Since then, he has become an established sitarist, known for virtuosity, speed and precision.

Mukherjee has toured the world extensively, giving concerts in over 25 countries, and from 1983 and 1995, respectively, taught from time to time at the Istituto Interculturale di Studi Musicali Comparati in Venice and the Rotterdam Conservatory. He has also recorded widely, and at the age of 47, his discography spanned exactly 47 CDs, LPs and cassettes. In 1995, he started recording on the surbahar, first as a two-part series for Beethoven Records in Kolkata, then raga Komal re Asavari for RPG/HMV on Tribute to My Father, My Guru. In 2003, he was the first Indian classical musician to have an enhanced CD published: Thumriyan, on Bengali label Rhyme Records in Kansas, containing ragas Piloo and Bhairavi.