Santoor and Tabla Performance by Vinay Desai and Monir Hossain

Initially, Vinay Desai received knowledge in vocal/harmonium/tabla from Shafiq Rahman in his teens. After completing his college in both Pre-pharmaceutical science as well as Pre-Law in Delaware, Vinay sought out to learn Santoor in India. In 2011, with blessings and direct guidance of Padma Vibhushan Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Vinay began his studies under Takahiro Arai. He later moved back to USA to learn from Kunal Gunjal. To expand his knowledge in music, Vinay has learnt from different Maestros such as Parthasarathi Chatterjee, Jay Gandhiji, Suryaksha Deshpandejii. Now, Vinay learns from Pandit Shivkumar Sharma directly while residing in Shanti Mandir, a beautiful Ashram located in Walden, NY. 

Monir Hossain hails from a musical family, grandson of researcher and performer Ustad Kader Buksh of West Bengal, India. Born in Bangladesh, Monir was musically influenced at an early age by his father, well-known vocalist Ustad Hafiz Hossain, as well as his uncle Ustad Hamid Hossain, a well known Hindustani classical music teacher on the East Coast of the United States. His long term Guru is Pandit Samar Saha of Sangeet Research Academy (SRA), Kolkata, India, trained primarily in Benares style. Monir also received extensive talimfrom his Guru tabla stalwart Pandit Nayan Ghosh of Bombay as well as Pandit Anup Ghosh of Delhi. Another notable tabla maestro who briefly taught Monir is (late) Ustad Shawkat Ali Khan of Kolkata as well as a very brief tutelage from legendary (late) Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh of Kolkata.

Monir has established himself as a dynamic tabla performer both as a soloist and as an able accompanist with numerous prestigious performances to his credit. Some of his notable performances are with Sarod Maestro Pt. Budhadev Das Gupta, Legendary (Late) Ustad Villayet Khan, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, Lakshmi Shankar, Ustad Fateh Ali khan, Pandit Rajiv Taranath, recently with sitar Maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez and numerous other musicians.