Snehesh

Snehesh started learning North Indian classical music and the sitar at the age of four from his father, sitar virtuoso Pt. Sugato Nag, belonging to the sarod gharana of Senia Shahjahanpore. He also took lessons from Shri Pranab Naha during his early childhood. He was attached to the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (SRA) as a junior scholar from 2010 to 2015 under Guru Padma Bhushan Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta; advanced lessons from Pt. Das Gupta continued until his passing. In addition to the style of the Senia Shahjahanpore gharana, he infuses the Imdadakhani gharana style, taught by his father, into his playing. Furthermore, he frequently takes lessons from the sarod maestro, Pt. Prattyush Banerjee. He has also learned the tabla from tabla maestro Pt. Tanmoy Bose and has taken vocal instruction from Shri Sandeep Nag.

Snehesh has received international acclaim, having performed to learned audiences across multiple cities across India, the US, and Canada, and has performed with world renowned musicians such as Pt. Subhankar Banerjee and Pt. Abhijit Banerjee. He has been featured in various newspaper reviews; his playing has been addressed as one that blends a lot of “emotion, surprise elements, and aesthetic touches...all streaming out of a thinking mind, far too matured for his age.” (The Hindu, 2015). He is a recipient of many awards such as the Acharya Allauddin Khan Memorial Award 2014 and the national scholarship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Snehesh graduated with a MS in Music Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2020, and often engages in exploring sounds, both from his sitar and other sources, with the use of technology. He often collaborates with a variety of musicians and plays in professional bands such as Ari and the Buffalo Kings, where he enjoys discovering and improvising based on the common musical langauge shared between them.