About Me
A young, dynamic Tabla player based in Leeds, U.K. He is one of the leading disciples of the renowned Tabla maestro and Gharanadar of the Benares gharana, Pandit Sharda Sahai Ji, who is the direct descendant of Pandit Ram Sahai Ji, the founder of this Gharana.
It was the influences of all the music around Bhupinder that gave him a very wide palette of the different musical genres. Bhupinder has since toured extensively in the UK playing in some of the most prestigious venues in the U.K. such as, Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Sage, Bridgewater Hall, most of the theatres and music venues, Brecon Jazz festival, Whitby Musicport (world music festival), Ards Guitar Festival (Ireland) to mention a few. He has played in India and throughout Europe dazzling audiences with his performances.
He has performed with both Indian Classical musicians as well as artists from more western traditions such as, Sri Harjinderpal Singh, Sri Dharambir Singh, Sri Kushal Das Ji, Smt. Purnima Chaudhari, Sri Snehashish Mazjumdar, H.H. Swami Gokul Utsav Ji Maharaj, Sri Anindya Banerjee, Dr. Rajeeb Chakraborty, Reena Shrivastav and Sanchita Pal, Jazz Flamenco guitarist Eduardo Neibla (with whom he has toured and played most of the venues in England with), Portuguese percussion maestro Rui Junior, popular mainstream artists such as, soul singer Jocelyn Brown, mercury award nominee band, Black Star Liner, numerous Dj’s of hip-hop/drum’n’bass backgrounds, Stephen Edwards (My Dad’s Corner Shop), Darshan Bhuller (phoenix Dance co.), Akram Khan, many Bhangra Stars. He was bestowed the greatest honour of performing two duet Tabla performances with his Guru, Pt. Sharda Sahai. Bhupinder has performed in India, most of Europe and has appeared on all the terrestrial TV channels twice over, some satellite channels and various radio channels including BBC Radio channels, Leeds, 3 and asian network.
Bhupinder is a dynamic soul and is very keen in passing on his knowledge and experience in the industry and has done numerous workshops/master-classes/residencies and is a regular teacher in schools in and around Leeds and in Denmark. He has recently setup an organisation called ‘Uthan’ (www.uthan.org.uk) in Leeds to promote the performance and education of Tabla. He was recently invited to perform at the Portugal Rufar 2006 international percussion festival.
Bhupinder’s other is also keen on composing music as he has such unique, rich blend of musical cultures imbibed in him. He has worked with production company called Pinjab - a diverse, creative production unit (www.pinjab.com) . Pinjab have recorded numerous scores for productions including for Phoenix Dance Co., Derby Playhouse Theatre Production, C4 film, Leeds international film festival, Samyo (South Asian Music Youth Orchestra) and many more shows. He performs with Indo/Jazz band, Free spirits (www.jazzaction.co.uk/freespirits.htm) who are a four-piece unit performing original material. He is currently working in a very dynamic five-piece ensemble called Samay (www.samay-uk.com) who are set to take the world music stage by a storm.
