Get to know us!

Faith Gonsalves | Founder, Project Director

Faith founded Music Basti in 2008. Her focus of work is pioneering partnerships and networks creation with local, national and international organizations; project management and supervision of policy development, volunteer training and management, monitoring and evaluation of programs and activities; developing strategies for advocacy and awareness about children’s participation and rights. While completing her Bachelors in History from Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi University, she worked with other local and national organizations on projects including with the Indian Education System, Child Rights, promotion of the arts and arts management, and she was the Editor for The YP Foundation’s annual publication, “‘The Bridge: Understanding Afghanistan Today”. Faith also enjoys singing whenever she can!

Pattie Gonsalves | Projects Manager | Founding Member

Pattie completed her Bachelor’s in Psychology at Delhi University, New Delhi, India. She has worked with Integrated Development Education Association (IDEA), The YP Foundation and is presently also a consultant with UNICEF. Her work covers project conceptualization, training needs assessment, implementation of programmes and impact assessment. Pattie was a part of Music Basti’s first conceptualization team in 2008 when she worked on a film project to launch Music Basti, and joined the project as staff in late 2010. Pattie enjoys singing and plays the guitar.

Ushinor Majumdar | Core Team

Sikandar joined Music Basti in early 2010 and worked on different projects to develop the content and create evaluation mechanisms for ongoing work. He loves theater and music and works as a trainer too.  Sikandar is currently completing his M.Phil. in History at Delhi University.

Sikandar is currently working part time with Music Basti from Delhi.

Suhail Yusuf Khan | Teaching Artist | Founding Member

Suhail comes from a rich musical background and descends from the Moradabad-Rampur and Senia Gharana of MIYAAN TANSEN. He is the grandson of renowned Sarangi legendPadmabhushan and Padmashree awardee USTAD SABRI KHAN and the nephew of the young Sarangi genius Shri KAMAL SABRI. Suhail is the eighth generation Sarangi player carrying on with this rich family tradition. He has performed in a number of well-known concerts in India and beyond, regularly sharing the stage with his uncle and grandfather. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards like the Surmani, the Best Instrumentalist Award by Chinmaya Center of Music, ‘The best Sarangi player award’ by Expressions 2003 and 2004 at Pragati Maidan just to name a few. Apart from pure Indian classical music Suhail is also involved in composing many jingles and background scores for documentaries. And he has been playing Sarangi in the famous band called Advaita.

ARTISTS

Abhishek Mathur | Teaching Artist

Abhishek is a music producer and composer based in Delhi. He is also the guitar player for the well known band Advaita. He has provided music for several TV shows, advertisements, plays and documentary films, including the award winning film, ‘The Forgotten Woman’ based on widows in Varanasi. Abhishek is passionate about exploring music that feels transcendental and spiritual and likes to channelise this into his personal compositions as well as in the work he does with Advaita.

Adhir Ghosh |Teaching Artist

Adhir has been playing guitar for over ten years and he presently plays with ‘Five8’ in Delhi. He is also a Masters student at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at JNU.

Aditya Balani | Teaching Artist

Aditya is an eclectic guitarist, composer and songwriter from New Delhi, India. He has worked with bands like Advaita, Aritistes Unlimited, Crimson, Think Floyd, Incognito and performed with international artists like Kenwood Dennard, David Fiuczynski, Carl Clements, Dhruv Ghanekar and Shubha Mudgal to name a few. In 2010 he graduated (summa cum laude) from Berklee College of Music (USA), where he received the Berklee Achievement Scholarship, won the Kenwood Dennard artist competition and performed at various celebrated events like the International Folk Music Festival and Guitar Night Showcase. Aditya is one of the rare guitarists who perform microtonal music, with a unique approach to fretless guitar developed from sarod and sitar playing techniques.

Birottam Dutta |Teaching Artist

Birottam has been working with Music Basti since August, the last. He is currently working with an Engineering consultancy called Engineer’s India Limited. He is a trained keyboard player (Level 3) and also playing guitar. He has, from the beginning, been associated with the Ummeed Home of Dil Se Campaign, initially involved in the guitar classes as volunteer/fill-in location manager and am currently teaching keyboard to the children of the home.

Mohit Lal | Teaching Artist

Mohit is a percussionist, his main instrument being the tabla. He is the son of the kathak maestro the late Pandit Durga Lal.  Mohit receives training from the tabla player Akram Khan and has performed in and outside India with artists like sitar player Gaurav Maujumdar and others.  He has also had the privilege of accompanying the sarod maestro Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan in concert.

Nadeem Khan | Teaching Artist

Nadeem Khan hails from the reputed school of Hindustani Classical music, the Rampur-Sehaswan Gharana. This Gharana owes its elegance to the great Tansen, who was the court musician of the famous Mughal emperor, Akbar the Great. Initiated into music by his maternal grandfather, the renowned maestro Ustad Sarfaraz Husain Khan (son of the legendary Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan Saheb), music came to Nadeem with his first breath. Nadeem has completed his Masters degree in Hindustani music (vocal) from the Faculty of Music, Delhi University and is currently pursuing his M. Phil in the same. He has completed his debut fusion album with an eminent flautist from London, Katrina fountain, named- Aghaaz- the beginning, which has been released digitally, over the internet, worldwide. Nadeem Khan performs regular all over India and abroad as well. Recently, he has been awarded with the ‘Swar Mani’ title from the Sur Singaar Sangeet Samiti, Mumbai, India.

Niraj Arya | Teaching Artist

Niraj Arya is a Delhi based young artist. He is a band member (vocal and guitar) of „makeshift“. Niraj has led quite an unconventional life. A keen learner, Niraj made the difficult decision of pursuing his music as a full-time career at a very early point in life. Since then he is strongly inspired by the philosophy of Kabir. Neeraj Arya’s personal philosophies of using art as a medium to inspire social change. Neeraj was born in New Delhi, India, and learned music informally through Manzil, a Delhi-based NGO and learning center that supports school students in the Khan Market neighborhood of South Delhi.

Shubh Saran | Teaching Artist

Shubh is a guitarist, composer, and music producer currently enrolled for a Bachelor of Music degree with a double major in Guitar Performance and Music Production at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA. He has performed with various ensembles at prestigious venues in USA and Canada including the Harvard Square Acoustic Festival, Isabel Bader Theatre, Horseshoe Tavern, Cat’s Eye, and Brassaii. He has also been interviewed by various Indian and Canadian television news channels. Shubh specialises in funk, blues, and Indian fusion music. He has a unique style of playing that uses percussive and slap guitar techniques.

Tarun Balani

Tarun Balani is a magnetic drummer, percussionist , composer and a music educator from New Delhi, India. He has worked as a drummer for bands like Advaita, Icognito, Artistes unlimited and has been the first call drummer for Indian artistes like Faridkot,Ujwal Nagar, Suhail Khan, Donn Bhatt and Sajid Akhbar. Tarun is also the drummer for Aditya Balani group, which is an upcoming World-jazz quintet. Apart from being a sideman Tarun also leads his own group, the Tarun Balani Collective. Balani brings together a collective of artistes/ musicians, aspiring to create a sound palette beyond limitations. Tarun holds a bachelors degree in music from the Berklee College of music. Tarun developed his voice as a world jazz drummer playing for the Berklee Global Jazz Ensemble where he studied and shared the stage with artistes like Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Joe lovano, Goerge Garzone, Ran Carter, among others. Tarun is also the creative director at Global Music Institute. Global Music Institute brings a distinctive and modern approach to music education in India. Their curriculum is comprehensive in its true sense, with an in-depth study of Indian Classical and Folk music, along with a broad range of musical genres including Jazz, Rock, Pop, Blues, Western Classical, and World Music.

INTERNS

Chandan Bhatia | Communications Team

Chandan Bhatia is 19 years old and currently completing his graduation from IP University, Delhi. He has been volunteering since August 2010, and has keen interest in creative arts, film editing and design. He loves all kinds of music and intends to be a social entrepreneur someday, carrying out the work of social change in the most effective yet creative way!

Smiti Malik | Intern | Teaching Artist

Smiti completed her Bachelors in Psychology from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She has worked in a number of projects dealing with adolescent psychologies, children with special needs, underprivileged children and so on. She has been singing since the age of four and enjoys playing the guitar. She is an intern presently working in a project of Music Basti called “Action Together” with partner organization Skillshare International.

MENTORS AND RESOURCE PARTNERS

Ritesh Khokhar | Director, Bridge Music Academy

In his career spanning two decades, Ritesh has taught at all premier institutes of western music in Delhi. Having completed Grade-8 in Solo Piano and Theory of Music from Trinity College London, he co-founded the Gurgaon School of Music in 2003, in which he served as a Director and senior faculty member for theory of music, piano and electronic keyboard for six years. In 2000, his passion for jazz earned him a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA. Over the years he has performed with many professional rock and jazz bands.  He is the author of the Bridge to Music Level-1 book and the teacher’s handbook (the only series of music textbook for public school in India) that was released in 2010. Ritesh is also the representative of the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in New Delhi and adjoining states. To realize his vision of placing India high on the map of international music circuit, Ritesh conceptualized the Bridge Music Private Limited in 2008.

Ishita Chaudhry | CEO and Founder, The YP Foundation (TYPF)

Ishita Chaudhry founded and is the CEO of The YP Foundation (TYPF) in New Delhi, India since 2002, when she was 17. TYPF supports and enables young people to create programmes and influence policies in the areas of gender, sexuality, health, education, the arts & governance. TYPF advances young people’s human rights, strengthening youth movements and reaching out to over 300,000 young people. Ishita works on building leadership and advocacy skills with youth groups across South Asia and at the United Nations on sexuality education, and on promoting artist rights and music education. She coordinates content development and fundraising for the arts programmes at TYPF and most recently, The Open House Series  – a music education programme that works with upcoming and amateur artists on the promotion, publication and protection of independent music in India. She has coordinated experimental performance programmes, such as the At Home Concert Series for Upcoming Musicians, The 15 Minute Fringe Festival, New Delhi, The Barn Owl’s Abandoned Opera with Graphic Novelist Sarnath Banerjee and supported the launch of arts initiatives like The Black Cow Company, Wide Aisle Productions, Artistes Unlimited and the Chicago Based Pegasus Players with The American Center. Ishita moonlights as a singer and pianist in Jazz and Hindustani Classical Music for the last 15 years.

This page is under construction.

Comments are closed