Rahul (Sabyasachi) Bhattacharya is a Hindustani (North Indian) musician who plays the 19th string sarod. Hailing from the city of Varanasi he commenced his musical studies at the age of 5 with vocal training and also undertook studies in Western Classical Guitar. He migrated to the sarod in the late 80s, and received tutelage from Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, the foremost exponent of the sarod. In addition to this he has also sought training in different instrumental styles from sitar virtuosos Ustad Shahid Parvez and Pandit Sugato Nag. One of the few performers of this difficult instrument in Australia, he performed the first ever Concerto for Sarod with the Preston Symphony Orchestra, wrote the first ever book on sarod playing and collaborated with instruments such as the cello, saxophone and musicians from Chile, Sri Lanka and Iran. Due to his exposure to multiple schools of music, he is now engaged in actively documenting masterpieces from his gurus to make them publicly available.

ARTIST WEBSITE: www.sarod.com.au