Soumik Datta
Soumik Datta (born c.1983) is a Bengali-born British Indian musician and composer, who specialises in the sarod.[1] He was born in Mumbai but brought up in London.[2] His brother is the photographer and filmmaker Souvid Datta.
Sons of banker father Soumilya and writer/ art house film director mother Sangeeta Datta,[3][4][5] Soumik and Souvid Datta both attended Harrow School and Soumik was trained in the sarod by Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta, whom he called "grandfather".[2] He went on to University College London, then studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, graduating in 2009 with an MMus in Composition.[6] In 2006 he was invited by Jay-Z to play at the Royal Albert Hall and he subsequently performed on stage with Beyoncé, but declined an offer to join her on tour.[2]
Soumik Datta contributed to the musical scores of the films Brick Lane (2007), Life Goes On (2009), and Gangs of Tooting Broadway (2013).
In 2017 he curated a festival of music and dance at the Horniman Museum in London.[7] In the same year, he presented Tuning 2 You: Lost Musicians of India, a documentary directed by his brother Souvid.[8]
In June 2019, Datta performed at the Glastonbury Festival. Later in the year he was signed by Bucks Music Group.[9]
Albums
- Fretless (2009)
- Circle of Sound (2012)[10] (with Bernhard Schimpelsberger)
- Anti-Hero (2014)
- King of Ghosts (2019)
References
- Maya Parmar (2019). Reading Cultural Representations of the Double Diaspora: Britain, East Africa, Gujarat. Springer. p. 170. ISBN 978-3-030-18083-6.
- Victoria-Anne Bull (20 May 2014). "Soumik Datta: Where east meets west in music". The Independent. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Soumik Datta: Where east meets west in music". The Independent. 2014-05-20. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
- "Sangeeta Datta in conversation on Rituparno Ghosh". The British Library. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
- Why India Votes?, Mukulika Banerjee, Routledge, 2017
- "Soumik Datta". Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Festival of Music, Stories & Dance curated by Soumik Datta at the Horniman". Horniman Museum. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Sony BBC Earth - SHOWS". www.sonybbcearth.com.
- "Bucks Signs Soumik Datta". M Magazine. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Circle of Sound". Soumik Datta. Retrieved 11 December 2019.