July 31, 2007 - New York City - The Indo American Arts Council and SAREGAMA, LTD. will release Call of the Young, a selection of seasonal and inspirational songs performed by Isheeta Ganguly, a fusion singer of the Indian diaspora. The songs were composed by Indian Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, and have been interpreted and rendered with a fresh and bold sensibility. The release function is on July 31, 2007 at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York City. Aroon Shivdasani, Executive Director of the Indo-American Arts Council, will be anchoring the evening.
Born in Kolkata and raised in the U.S., Turkey, Japan and Indonesia, Isheeta began singing at the age of five and went to Kolkata as a teenager to train in Rabindra Sangeet with the legendary Smt. Suchitra Mitra. She released her first album at the age of 15 titled Tomari Nam Bolbo (It's Your Name I Call). It struck a chord with the Kolkata audience and was followed by four additional, highly anticipated releases, two of which were collaborations with Smt. Suchitra Mitra in a series titled Aj Khala Bhangar Khala (The Dance of Life).
Isheeta has performed widely at various multi-cultural venues including various North American Bengali Conferences as well as The Knitting Factory, the Lincoln Center, The Kaye Playhouse and Florence Gould Hall in New York City. She has simultaneously trained in Western jazz and opera with Metropolitan Opera singer, Nancy Wilson which led to her joining a jazz, gospel and pop a'cappella group at Brown University called The Chattertocks. Her ease with both Indian and Western styles of singing led to the beginnings of a musical language of her own which ties together these many threads in a number of international, multi-media projects. These cross-over collaborations and recordings include "Songs of Tagore" with The Battery Dance Compay, "Baoul and Ragas" with the late legendary sitarist, Ustaad Vilayat Khan, "Riot" with Shabana Azmi, Madhur Jaffrey and Shashi Tharoor, "Still I Rise" with Mallika Sarabhai, and "Chiranthan" with Tanushree Shankar. Isheeta has also composed music for a number of productions including for the post 9/11 Off-Broadway production "Barriers" as well the inaugural piece for the Indo-American Arts Council film festival in New York City. Recently invited by the American Embassy in New Delhi as a "global music ambassador" to tour with her new album, Isheeta will continue her performances throughout the summer. Currently, she is also working on her fusion album with percussionist Tanmoy Bose, slated to be released at the end of this year.
Call of the Young (Nutan Joubaneri Duth), directed by her guru Smt. Suchitra Mitra, is Isheeta's first release with SAREGAMA, which will also be distributed internationally. The album includes a selection of popular, seasonal and inspirational Tagore songs with universal themes of rejuvenation, courage, reinvention and celebration that mirror the experiences of every community.
Isheeta wants to familiarize audiences outside Bengal, both nationally and internationally, with the delights of Rabindra Sangeet, particularly the lilting melodies and poetic lyrics which strike a chord with people across age groups and nationalities around the world. |
