Panchajanya Dey

PLAYS

Flute

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GHARANA

Kirana

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Panchajanya Dey is a Hindustani classical flautist and the first musician in his family. Drawn to music from an early age, he chose it as his profession and seeks to present classical music in a way that appeals to wide audiences, including younger listeners, while keeping the purity of the form. He is described as the first flautist in Hindustani classical music to play two octaves of a flute simultaneously in a single blow, the first proponent of the "double octave". He learned the basics of the flute from Shri Sakti Pada Nag, a disciple of Shri Nilu Dasgupta and Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan, who first recognised his talent and taught him the gayaki ang of the Vishnupur gharana. For advanced training he went to Sanjoy Bandopadhyay, who had learned mainly under Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra and Pt. Bimalendu Mukherjee in the Senia-Shahjehanpur, Imdadkhani and Rampur-Senia schools, and through whom he was exposed to a wide variety of music. He received vocal training from Shri Shyamal Bhattacharya, a disciple of A. Kanan and Pt. Jagdish Prasad; light classical training from Smt. Rakhi Bandopadhyay; and tabla training in the Benaras school from Shri Chittapriya Chowdhury, a grand-disciple of Pt. Kishan Maharaj. He has also learned Western classical guitar, piano and harmonica.