He feels that the combination of creativity and entrepreneurship actually offers a lot of opportunities and can prove invaluable to the careers of many. For him, music is a universal language of mankind. Birds chirping, rivers humming and sacred chants in temples – music all around, early morning devotional songs by village singers, songs telling stories of bygone eras, music to celebrate wedding ceremonies or religious festivals, songs by musicians. Band Party – All the key ingredients to celebrate life with music.
Speaking exclusively to Biz Buzz, nationally and internationally acclaimed musician Riddhi Banerjee, popularly known as the “daughter of five poets”, says that if musical creativity can be combined with entrepreneurial skills, the entire practice will be sustainable and the reach will be much greater. spacious
Music entrepreneur or music entrepreneur seems to be fast approaching as the new buzzword in the music industry. What is your opinion on this matter?
The music industry already has a large element of business attached to it, whether musicians are aware of it or not. To many musicians, creativity and business seem like two completely different worlds, and they either don’t want to acknowledge the business side of music, or simply don’t want to deal with it. Now everyone is increasingly talking about the importance of developing strong musicianship skills as well as an entrepreneurial mindset to become a well-rounded Newgen musician. The music entrepreneurship industry leverages entrepreneurial skills and mindsets to empower musicians to create work that is meaningful, sustainable, and oriented to community and market needs. A musician entrepreneur to me is a unique combination of a musician and an entrepreneur. And music entrepreneurship is a synthesis of creativity, artistic vision, people skills, leadership, value-based marketing and business sense. It is the process of turning passion into profession. A true music entrepreneur is one who can identify the demand-supply gap, identify the target group, come up with some innovations or innovative ideas.
So how have you pursued this in your own case?
See, around 279.5 million (about 28 crore) people worldwide speak Bengali as their mother tongue. About 100 million Bengali speakers in Bangladesh, about 85 million in India, primarily in the states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura; and large immigrant communities from the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Middle East. This can be seen as the overall market size.
Now the Bengal music industry is divided into film, non-film and classical, with many non-film music now being released independently. Among non-film music, there are poetry-based forms such as Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Geeti and Dwijendra Geeti, modern or “modern” songs, devotional songs specially released during April or during pujas, Bengali rock bands and folk music. Consists of Baul, Bhatiali, Jhumur and related forms. Although Bengali music has a large audience, even among the diaspora abroad, it has not made the same impact as Hindi or Punjabi music. So I realized that there is a gap and the opportunity is huge.
So I thought let me try experimenting with some novels and I pioneered the idea of ”Songs of Pancho Kabir” incorporating the compositions and lyrics of Rabindra Nath, Dwijendra Lal, Rajni Kanto, Atul Prasad and Kazi Nazrul. Demand-supply gap in the region. Bengali diaspora living abroad or in states outside Bengal do not have the resources to be exposed to or properly train their next generation in such music.
Does it pay off?
If you look at it from the recognition point of view, I received a national level award “Tumi Ananya 2019” and I was invited to perform as an anchor soloist in the prestigious Anand Purushkar in 2019. I got a chance to act. Playback singer in numerous Bengali films and Bengali serials. I also get invitations from different parts of the world to perform on stage. I am also known as “Daughter of Five Poets” among Bengali music lovers in India, Bangladesh and abroad. And if you look at it another way, hundreds of my students from different parts of the world who have taken it, are now standing as musicians because there are not many people who can sing these songs properly.
Also, the daughter of Panch Kabir, was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Junior Fellowship Award on Panch Kabir Songs by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and the State Sangeet Academy Scholarship Award, Government of West Bengal. I have performed at numerous national and international level forums including National School of Drama (2013 & 2015) Rango Mohotsav, Swami Vivekananda, NABC2013 (Toronto), NABC2015 (Houston), NABC2017 (Silicon Valley), NABC2017 (Silicon Valley), 2013 (2013) and songs by Swami Vivekananda. Baltimore), NABC2021 (Global) and Nazrul Convention in Annandale, VA(NANCY 2018), Sangeet Natak Academy of Kerala performing Shakespeare festival in 2010, ‘Riddhi’s Ek’ celebrates 20 years of musical career in 2018, SharadAB, London Anand), Bangladesh National The songs of Panch Kabir organized by the museum, I would like to mention a few.
People say ‘Panch Kabir Gaan’ (songs of five poets), Tagore numbers and Nazrul Giti overshadow others. Although it is called ‘Panch Kabir Gan’, it is actually a Tagore number and a Nazrul song. What do you have to say about this?
This is not entirely the case. Although this is true, to some extent, because some artists could not maintain the expectations and standards. Organizers and sponsors could not run the right type of campaign. If sung or performed correctly, there is no reason why the audience will not accept them. Each song (lyrics, melody and so on) is beautiful in its own way.
Who did you get your training from?
Not one but many. I trained under the supervision of Maya Sen, Dr. Shailen Das, Vani Thakur, Manju Gupta, Krishna Chattopadhyay, Sushil Chattopadhyay, Chandi Das Mal, Devi Ranjan Bandyopadhyay (Bishnupur Gharana), Dr. Debjit Bandyopadhyay, Pandit Ajay Chakraborty and Natyopadhyay.
So do you only perform ‘Pancho Kabir Song’?
no Besides songs of these five famous poets of Bengal, I perform classical Bengali songs such as Nidhu Babu’s Toppa, Kirtan, Bengali Theater Songs (West Bengal and East Bengal), Chodar Songs (Chhara) for children and teenagers. In my academy, which has online and offline students from almost all over the world, I also offer voice training for beginners apart from such songs.
