Mumbai based tabla player Amit Mishra is known all over the world for his music in the Indian classical and World Fusion genre. His passion for the Indian drum instrument started as a young child in his home town, one of the oldest living cities in the world, Varanasi. Every year Amit travels to Europe, America and even Japan to share his passion for Indian music with a wide audience. But then this year in March the government of India banned all international flights to and from India to stop the spread of Covid-19.
“It was such a horrible situation in the beginning. The first four months of lockdown I had nothing to do and also lost two big international tours in USA and Japan. Some time later initiatives developed to organize virtual concerts, but still not paid ones especially not in the classical music scene. But it’s important every for musician to stay connected with fans and followers so that was my motivation to come online on Facebook and Instagram, and do live sessions.Unfortunately, in India musicians don’t receive financial support from the government and this means we have to take care of ourselves. Luckily, since November I’m in a much better financial position, because I’m getting paid for virtual gigs”.
Due to the travel ban and lockdown Amit had more time to work on video clips and continued his interaction on social media with his fans. Recently he collaborated with World Music band MaatiBaani and recorded an ancient chant ‘Karpur Gauram’, a song about peace and hope that will empower and reenergize you.
A Year of Self-Reflection
“I think 2020 is the best year to understand myself and to analyze my music. As a performing musician I travel a lot and I don’t have much time to practice and deepen my interest in music, but this pandemic gave me plenty of time for my tabla and I made some good compositions as well. Since my childhood I am very fond of singing thumari’s and ghazals and during the lockdown I practiced a lot on my singing and creating new tunes. Another benefit of this pandemic was that after 12 years I stayed in my home town Varanasi for more than three months and had such a beautiful time together with my family and childhood friends. And that’s not all, during the pandemic I learned to cook many amazing dishes. In fact cooking was my greatest teacher to develop my thoughts”. ☺️
Amit dreams of leaving the visual concert space and to tour again in different cities across the globe. “I need positive energy from my audience whom I missed the most this year and to share with them my new compositions”. ❤️
Know more about Amit and his music. Visit his website www.amitmishratabla.com 🙏
Amit performed for DesiYUP in 2019 together with Indian vocalist Nirali Kartik and on harmonium Prewien Pandohi-Mishre
