Rabin Ghosh

Rabin Ghosh (1932–2010), a 20th-century violin virtuoso of 'Seni-Maihar' Gharana (Seni-Maihar School of thoughts) of North Indian Classical Music, India, was a disciple of Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan Saheb. He was noted for his unique style of playing 'Ati-Vilambit' (very slow movement applicable to 'Alap' and 'Vilambit Gat' of a raga, a very prime feature to the Indian classical music) with an extensive use of 'Micro-Tone' (application of 'Shruti') to imitate the Indian Singing style.

Rabin Ghosh hailed from a family with a strong musical background. His father was an Engineer and played Flute and Esraj (an Indian string instrument). From a very early age, Rabin Ghosh was influenced by the musical atmosphere, which drove him into playing Esraj, Flute, and Tabla (an Indian percussion instrument). He finally focused on Violin, under the guidance of Mr. Mani Majumder, one of the renowned violinists of the contemporary time of Western Classical Music.

After continuous training on Western Classical Music he shifted to North Indian Classical Music under the guidance of 'Sangeetacharya' Haripada Chattopadhay, exponent violinist of 'Dagar Gharana' (Dagar school of thoughts) of North Indian Classical Music. Rabin Ghosh continued his training more than a decade under the tutelage of Haripada Chattopadhay. During this time he not only won violin Competitions, also performed in concerts along with All India Radio, Calcutta.

In the year 1955, Rabin Ghosh got an opportunity to play violin before Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb (at the time of visiting Calcutta), the doyen of Hindustani Classical Music. He played Raga Mian ki Todi before him. Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb was satisfied to accept him as his disciple. In the mid of 1955, Rabin Ghosh left for Maihar.

Life at Maihar for Rabin Ghosh was very dedicated. Besides receiving training from Baba Allauddin Khan Saheb, he was appointed as a teacher of Maihar Government Music College. Rabin Ghosh had a very strict and long duration practice session which he maintained till the last day in Maihar. In his own words "I used to light a thick fragrance stick and would continue practice till it burned out totally".

At that time, Rabin Ghosh's practice sessions lasted about 12 hours a day but reached a peak of 14 to 16 hours a day. During his stay at Maihar over seven and half years, he experimented with different techniques on violin sound production and researched sitting posture which helped with the long duration of practice sessions.

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