A Musical Journey

Singer Niloy Ahsan
Talks to
Naziba Basher

	Courtesy

I was brought up at the Jahangirnagar campus since both my parents were employees at the institution- my father was in the administration and my mother was a faculty member. I went to Jahangirnagar School and then went to Dhaka Residential Model College for my Secondary School Certificaate exams (SSC). After that, I joined Notre Dame College for my Higher Secondary Certificate exams (HSC). After completing my HSC exams, I received a Government Scholarship and moved to Russia for my Bachelor's in Architecture in Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and I am currently in my 3rd year.

Throughout my life at school, I was always very involved in cultural activities and have accomplished a lot since then. In the year 2003, I had won first place in a nation-wide competition called Notun Kuri for Rabindra Sangeet and a year after that I won a national award from Jatiyo Rabindra Sangeet Shommelon Parishad.

My father, Ashrafuddin Ahmed, has always been my mentor as a singer. He was my first teacher. Because of both my parents, I grew up in a very cultural environment where they cherished classical music more than anything else. After a couple of years of training from my father, when I was in the fourth grade, I started learning from Ustad Babu Rahman, from the Agra Gharana. Then in 2009, I started training under Sujit Mustafa and worked on voice culture and voice techniques with him.

After moving to Russia for university, I met a very famous 65 years old composer and trumpet player- Vycheslar Guyvoronsky. He gave me the opportunity to perform in his own theatre. I performed classical music and Vycheslar loved it. He then collaborated with me and another Russian artist, Beniskucherov, who is a tabla player and a disciple of Aninda Chatterjee. The three of us then started touring all over Russia together producing music together. We even played at the tribute concert of Russian Rock Guru- Boris Grevenshikov. On the same day, we released our own track, Terminator, in a mixed album by Vycheslar called Dodecameron. I came back to Bangladesh in October and got married. My wife is also a musician, a sitar player, and is Russian.

Vycheslar, Beniskucherov and I also have our own album coming out soon, which will be released in March in London, England. Our album’s name is Around Silence and its genre will be Ethnic Jazz, pretty much Indian Classical music fused with Jazz.

I think our country is very culturally rich and many great maestros have hailed from here. I would like to ask all the talented youngsters of our country, no matter which form of art they choose, to know and love our history and culture so that when they go abroad to broaden their knowledge, they can not only compare but also enrich others with our affluent history in culture and music. To be able to do well, in any sector of life, one has to always know the roots of one's identity.