Rajrupa Chowdhury during the performance. Photo: Mumit M.

A solo performance by promising sarod artiste Rajrupa Chowdhury was held at Bengal Shilpalaya in Dhanmondi on August 29. Rajrupa is a vibrant young musician who completed her M.A. in Music from Rabindra Bharati University in India with an outstanding result -- obtaining the first class first position. Born in Kolkata, the artiste is currently living in Dhaka. Another talented musician, Swarup Hossain, provided sangat (accompaniment) with tabla to Rajrupa's performance.
Luva Nahid Chowdhury, managing director of Bengal Foundation, welcomed the audience and introduced the artistes. Rajrupa started her sarod lessons at the age of five, under the tutelage of Pranab Naha, at the Ameer Khan School of Instrumental Music. She received intensive training from Siddharth Roy Chowdhury, Joydeep Ghosh and Pandit Ajay Sinha Roy. Rajrupa is now taking special guidance from Pandit Sanjay Bandyopadhyay. Her skills have already earned her a lot of expectations from the music enthusiasts.
Swarup Hossain is a gold medallist student of tabla from the University of Baroda, India.
Rajrupa started with a rendition of Raga Emon. The performance without any use of tabla seemed to move the hundred-plus audience who showed up despite the gloomy weather and rain. Next was a rendition of Raga Bagheshri, initially in a bilombito teen taal and then in madhya laya. The aalap started slowly and gradually the pace picked up.
Towards the end, Rajrupa's fingers went violent on the strings of sarod. Swarup's tabla provided an apt sangat, leaving the audience fixed in their positions. The performance was greeted with rounds of applause. Honouring the audiences' request, Rajrupa continued her performance with a rendition of Divavati. The evening ended with music enthusiasts longing for more.