Toronto Tabla Ensemble

Toronto Tabla Ensemble

The Toronto Tabla Ensemble in concert
Background information
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres North Indian Classical, World
Years active 1991–present
Associated acts Pandit Chitresh Das
Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri
Evan Ritchie, Donald Quan, Jeff Martin, The Tea Party
Website www.torontotabla.com
Members Ritesh Das
Razak Pirani
Shamir Panchal
Nivethan Velauthapillai (Apprentice)
Past members Santosh Naidu, Debanjan Mukherjee, Subha Dasgupta, Devin Persaud, Ed Hanley, Prasanna Ketheeswaran, Gurtej Hunjan, Morgan Doctor, Amar Seepersad, Rakesh Tewari, Anita Katakkar, Joanna de Souza, Keith Sutcliffe, Dexter Raghunanan, Neel Punna, Satpal Singh, Heather Thorkelson, Anand Kapur, Robin Kalnin, Bindhu Sadasivan, Jono Gooch, Vitra Gosine, Sara Jaffri

The Toronto Tabla Ensemble (TTE) is a non-profit charitable organization founded by Artistic Director and tabla master Ritesh Das. The performing ensemble has toured Canada coast-to-coast six times, toured Australia in 2006, and India in 2011.

Since 1996 the TTE has produced three music videos and six albums, including Firedance, which received a nomination for the Juno Award for Best Global Album. Their original music has been used in numerous films and commercials, and in 2003 the Ensemble was commissioned to create the theme music for CBC Radio’s daily morning show, Metro Morning.[1][2]

25 years

In 2016 the Toronto Tabla Ensemble celebrated its 25th anniversary with a pair of concerts at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. This was the official debut of the Toronto Tabla Youth Ensemble and featured brand new music composed by Artistic Director Ritesh Das. In addition to the tabla, students played South Indian mridangam, ghatam, and keyboard, and also launched the JAMKat. For this event, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, wrote a congratulatory letter which was presented by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Arif Virani, during the concert. The concert was supported in part by Ontario Arts Council.

Indian Diaspora Festival

In 2014 the Toronto Tabla Ensemble launched an innovative festival called the Indian Diaspora Festival.[3] The sold out festival launch featured performances of Indian dance and music performed by local and international artists. The tabla player was a student of Ritesh Das trained in Toronto while the kathak dancer was a student of Das' late brother Pandit Chitresh Das from California.[4]

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "CBC Metro Morning". CBC. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "Acclaimed Independent Band Exploring World Music". Washington Bangla Radio. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  3. ↑ "What's On: Opens Streets Toronto, Cultural Fests and Axe Throwing". CBC. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  4. ↑ CanIndia. "Toronto Tabla Ensemble launches innovative new festival". Retrieved 2 September 2014.
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