Soumik Datta was born in West Bengal, grew up in Mumbai, and moved to the UK at the age of 14. While studying for a master’s degree in composition at London’s Trinity College of Music, he studied sarod with Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta during annual trips to Kolkata.
United Kingdom
Daniel Dittus
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Domain of expertise: Performance
AKMA Cycle Year: 2022 Cycle
Status: Laureate
ABOUT
Soumik Datta was born in West Bengal, grew up in Mumbai, and moved to the UK at the age of 14. While studying for a master’s degree in composition at London’s Trinity College of Music, he studied sarod with Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta during annual trips to Kolkata.
Soumik Datta’s peripatetic life is reflected in his music, which fuses his training in Hindustani classical music with pop, rock, electronica, and film soundtracks. In 2019, BBC’s Channel 4 broadcast his film series Rhythms of India, which offers a panoramic introduction to India’s musical diversity. Rhythms of India followed an earlier series, Tuning 2 You: Lost Musicians of India, a documentary about marginalised and endangered musical traditions on the subcontinent.
Soumik Datta is strongly committed to using music to raise awareness about urgent social issues including climate change, refugees and mental health. His latest production, Hope Notes, is an immersive concert and theatre piece that combines animation and Indian music with the voices of displaced people to create a tapestry of stories, music and visual art.
